NEW DELHI: The new variant of Covid-19 that is 70% more transmissible than the existing strains has been found in four patients, who have returned to Delhi from the UK.
The four patients, all hailing from the city, have been admitted to the Delhi government-run Lok Nayak Hospital.
The people found infected with the new variant of the virus have been isolated separately in different rooms of a special ward designated particularly for such patients.
According to the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry, a total of nine samples of the UK returnees have been found to be infected by the new variant in Delhi laboratories.
The National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has detected eight samples, while the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB) has found one infected with the new strain.
The tally of positive patients suspected of carrying the new variant has reached 35 at the hospital. Of them, 20 have returned from the UK, while the remaining are those who came in contact with them, officials confirmed.
The samples have, so far, been sequenced in seven of the 10 designated labs across the country — seven samples tested positive in NIMHANS, Bengaluru, two in CCMB, Hyderabad, and one in NIV, Pune, eight in NCDC, Delhi, one in IGIB, Delhi, and one in NIBG, Kalyani, (West Bengal).
The Delhi government has quarantined around 200 people, who have either come back from the UK within a month or are in contact with those travellers found positive, at two facilities.
The officials said over 80 of them have been quarantined at a hotel in Aerocity, while the rest are kept at a banquet hall-turned-quarantine facility near Chattarpur.
The government has designated 2,000-bed LNJP as the nodal centre for such patients.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has extended the suspension of flights from the UK from December 31 till January 7.
While all international flights, except for those operating under air bubble, will remain suspended till January 31, 2021.