New Delhi: The total number of persons found infected with a new strain of coronavirus - first detected in Britain in September - has increased to 141, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday.
Data shows that at least 25 new COVID-19 infections linked to the mutant strain, considered "70 per cent more infections" were reported after a gap of two days.
The central government has not given a state-wise breakup of the cases linked to UK Covid strain. Till now, all such cases have been detected among international travellers and their close contacts, who are recovering in single-room government-run quarantine facilities.
Restrictions on international travel continue with government increasing focus on tracking, testing and treating those who landed in India before the 15-flight suspension with UK starting December 23.
The coronavirus mutation first found in Britain has now spread to 50 territories, according to the World Health Organization, while a similar South African-identified strain has now been found in 20.
The rise in number of UK Covid cases, confirmed after genome sequencing by a 10-lab consortium INSACOG, comes amid a steady decline in cases of the older strain of coronavirus in India.
In the last 24 hours, India saw the lowest surge in daily Covid cases in nearly seven months with 10,064 fresh coronavirus cases. It also logged the lowest number of deaths linked to the virus in a single day since May 23 -- 137.
The country has logged 1.05 crore cases and 1.52 lakh deaths since the beginning of the pandemic and over 1.02 crore people have recovered, government data shows.
The drop in daily cases comes as India enters the fourth day of the world's largest inoculation drive, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday. According to the Health Ministry, more than 3.8 lakh people have already been vaccinated so far.