Hyderabad: India has reported four new cases of the highly infectious new strain of COVID-19, including one fresh case sequence at CCMB Hyderabad, with this the total number of these cases rise to 29 on Friday.
According to the data released by Ministry of Health on Friday, 29 cases of a new UK variant COVID-19 virus have been found in India, including 10 in New Delhi, one in Kalyani of West Bengal, 5 in Pune, 3 in Hyderabad and 10 in Bengaluru.
A total of three samples of genome sequence at CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) in Hyderabad, was also found with the new COVID-19 strain in the last three days.
Earlier, two samples were tested positive for the new UK strain at CCMB Hyderabad, one each from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana state. On Friday, one more new case was found at CCMB Hyderabad. However, officials are yet to confirm whether this case is from the Telangana or not.
The Telangana state health minister Eatala Rajender said that steps are being taken in the state in wake of global concerns with the new type of virus strain.
The presence of the new COVID-19 variant was first identified in the UK on September 21.
Meanwhile, the Indian government had extended the suspension of flights to and from the UK till January 7 amid alarm over the new highly contagious strain of the coronavirus.