UK's COVID-19 mutation cases on the rise in India, tally reaches 29 with four more cases

Amid the threat of the new strain of the Coronavirus, four more people in India were found to be infected with the new variant, taking the cumulative number of infected people with the UK variant to 29 in the country. India on Thursday reported five new cases of the new strain of coronavirus and previously, 14 were reported on Wednesday and six on Tuesday.

The mutation of COVID-19 first emerged in South East England and experts stated that the new strain is 70% more transmissible than the previous one. The new strain of Coronavirus is more dominating than the previous one, according to the experts, and has compelled UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to announce stricter stay-at-home lockdown measures in the UK amid the festive season.

The new variant of Coronavirus has caused havoc in the UK with the fresh load of cases going above the 50,000 mark daily. The UK on Friday reported 55,892 cases, 299352 in last 7 days, as per the UK Government website. The new variant has also been detected in multiple countries around the world with its presence being reported by Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia, Italy, Sweden, France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, Japan, Lebanon, and Singapore, so far. Moreover, there has been another strain of the virus emerging in South Africa which is said to be responsible for 90% of the new cases reported in the country.

In a preemptive move, India suspended flights from the UK on December 23 till the end of the year which the Civil Aviation Ministry on December 30 announced the extension of flight ban till January 7.

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Coronavirus situation in India

Meanwhile, India's COVID-19 active caseload continued to exhibit a sustained downward slide and has significantly dropped to 2,54,254 on Friday, the lowest after 179 days according to Union Health Ministry. The daily new cases in India in recent days have been around 20,000. The number of fresh Coronavirus cases in a span of 24 hours stood at 20,036. The total number of recovered cases is set to reach the 99 lakh mark on Saturday as the recovered cases stood at 98,83,461 on Friday with the addition of 23,181 recoveries in 24 hours.

"The gap between recoveries and active cases, that is steadily increasing, has crossed 96 lakh and presently stands at 96,29,207," the ministry highlighted.

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