Four Covid positive patients have been found infected with the new variant first detected in the UK, while around 200 people, including returnees from the UK and their contact have been put under institutional quarantine by the Delhi government, officials told IANS.

All four patients have been admitted in the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash (LNJP) Hospital.

The patients found infected with the new variant have been isolated separately in different rooms of a special ward designated for the patients suspected or found infected with the new variant, the hospital officials told IANS

The tally of positive patients suspected of carrying the new strain has reached 35 in the hospital. Of them, 20 have returned from the UK and the remaining are those who came in contact with them, officials confirmed.

The AAP government has quarantined around 200 people, who either returned from the UK within a month or are in contact with those travellers found positive, at two facilities.

The Delhi government has designated 2,000-bed LNJP as the nodal centre for isolation of persons who are suspected to have the new variant of the Covid-19.

The officials informed that more than 80 of them have been quarantined at a hotel in Aerocity while the rest are kept in a banquet hall turned quarantine facility situated near Chattarpur.

As per the information by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, a total nine samples of the UK returnees have been found to be infected by the new variant in Delhi laboratories. The NCDC has detected eight samples while IGIB has found one infected with the new strain.

The Union Health Ministry informed earlier in the day that the total number of people testing positive for the new UK variant genome of Sars-CoV-2 virus has reached 20 based on the results of genome sequencing of positive samples released by the Indian Sars-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) labs.

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).

In a bid to contain the spread of a new strain of the Covid-19, 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 those operating under air bubble will remain suspended till January 31, 2021