India finds cases of new strain
India has found six cases of a more infectious strain of the coronavirus, which has prompted border closures around the world, in people arriving from Britain and will likely extend a flight ban to guard against it, officials said yesterday.
All six of the infected people had been kept in isolation, the health ministry said in a statement, adding that their fellow travellers were being traced.
At least three cases were detected in travellers from the UK who arrived in Pakistan.
And Germany health officials in Germany yesterday said the new coronavirus strain had been traced in the country since November. Researchers were "able to sequence the variant of the B1.1.7 virus in a person infected in November this year", the health ministry of Lower Saxony said in a statement referring to the new strain.
India had suspended all flights from Britain until the end of the month over worry about the infectious variant of the virus but about 33,000 passengers had flown in from late November, before the ban was enforced, the ministry said.
Of those arrivals, 114 people were found positive for the coronavirus and their samples were being checked for the new variant, which has been detected across parts of Europe and Asia, it said.
Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said the ban on flights from Britain would probably remain in force into the New Year.
Meanwhile, a study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) has concluded that Britain must vaccinate two million people a week to avoid a third wave of the coronavirus outbreak.
The UK has had more than 71,000 deaths from the coronavirus and over 2.3 million cases of Covid-19 infections as of late Monday, according to a Reuters tally.
"The most stringent intervention scenario with tier 4 (restrictions) England-wide and schools closed during January and 2 million individuals vaccinated per week, is the only scenario we considered which reduces peak ICU (intensive care) burden below the levels seen during the first wave," the study said.
"In the absence of substantial vaccine roll-out, cases, hospitalisations, ICU admissions and deaths in 2021 may exceed those in 2020."
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