India recorded 23,950 fresh coronavirus cases and 333 COVID-19 deaths in the last 24 hours, government data shows. The daily caseload was 22 per cent higher than yesterday's when the country added less than 20,000 cases - 19,556 - for the first time since July 2. With this, the country's coronavirus case tally has crossed 1 crore and 99 thousand with 1.46 lakh deaths.
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Up to 26,895 people recovered from the highly infectious disease, bringing down the overall active caseload to its lowest in 5.5 months - 2.89 lakh - with a recovery rate of over 95 per cent.
Kerala (60,49), Maharashtra (3,106), Chhattisgarh (1,380), West Bengal (1,653) and Uttar Pradesh (1,211) logged the highest daily infections in the country. Highest deaths in the past day were recorded in Kerala, Delhi, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Punjab.
At a time when India is witnessing a decline in its active coronavirus cases, a new mutation of COVID-19 virus strain in the United Kingdom has become a "super-spreader" with 70 per cent increased transmissibility rate. "The new strain offers no change in clinical severity or mortality," said Dr Chaand Nagpaul, the Chair of the Council of British Medical Association.
This strain of coronavirus has not been found in India so far, Dr VK Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog said on Tuesday.
The mutant strain - B.1.1.7 - has at least 17 changes to its viral genetic load and was detected in southeast England in September. It has already been seen in Italy, Denmark, the Netherlands and Australia.
India, among the several nations to have temporarily banned flights to and from the UK, issued guidelines for passengers arriving from the country, including compulsory RT-PCR test on arrival, genome sequencing for those with new strain, 14-day travel history declaration for all international passengers. States have also been directed to give a list of returnees.
A total of 358 passengers had arrived in Telangana, while "this number could be as high as 6,000-7,000" for Delhi, from where many go to other neighbouring states.
Experts have stressed that that measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus remained the same - these include maintaining social distance, using face masks and washing hands regularly.
Vaccine makers have added that the shots should work against the new strain since 99 percent of the protein is still the same". However, The co-founder of BioNTech said it could also adapt the vaccine if necessary in six weeks.
The new virus strain has also cast a shadow on British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's India visit as the chief guest at the Republic Day parade in Delhi next month.
