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29-12-2020
Bureau Report
NEW DELHI/ ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and India are the latest countries to report first cases of the new, highly contagious coronavirus variant detected in the UK.
At least three cases were detected in travellers from the UK who arrived in Pakistan.
India reported six people who travelled from the UK to be carrying the variant.
South Korea reported 40 new COVID deaths, a record daily toll, bringing the death tally to 859 as the country grapples with a third wave of infection centred around nursing homes and a prison in Seoul.
And South Africa further tightened COVID restrictions, banning alcohol sales and extending a nationwide curfew.
Globally, more than 81.18 million people reported to be infected by the virus and 1,773,003 have died so far.
All six patients have been kept in isolation, India’s health ministry said in a statement, adding that their fellow travelers were being tracked down.
“Their close contacts have also been put under quarantine,” the ministry said.
India has suspended all flights from the UK until the end of the month but some 33,000 passengers had flown in from late November, before the ban, the ministry said.
At least three cases of the coronavirus variant were detected in the southern port city of Karachi.
“Twelve samples of UK returnees were taken for genotyping out of which six were positive and three showed the new variant of the virus in the first phase,” the ministry said in a statement on Twitter.
“The genotyping showed 95 per cent match of the new variant from the UK. These samples will go through another phase of genotyping,” it added.
