Monitor News Desk
As many as 14 new cases of mutant coronavirus strain, which was first reported in UK, have been registered in India, reports said Wednesday morning.
On Tuesday, India recorded six patients infected with the new strain; all of them are travellers who returned from the UK recently.
The new mutated version of the coronavirus detected in the UK and South Africa are significantly more transmissible than other known strains, experts have said.
In India, the number is likely to surge. Delhi has recorded the most number of these cases of new virus strain (8), followed by Bengaluru (7).
Existing coronavirus vaccines will work against mutated strains, the Health Ministry asserted on Tuesday. “There is no evidence current vaccines will fail to protect against COVID-19 variants from the UK or South Africa,” Professor K VijayRaghavan, the government’s Principal Scientific Adviser, said.
Meanwhile, a 20-something man from Colorado is the first American known to be infected with a new variant of coronavirus that emerged this fall in the UK, raising concern that a more transmissible strain could spread widely across the country.
The Colorado State Laboratory confirmed the patient had the mutated form of the virus, known as B.1.1.7, and informed the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Colorado Governor Jared Polis said in a statement on Twitter.
