South Africa, Brazil COVID-19 strains detected in India

By Ahmad Adil

NEW DELHI, India (AA) - The South African and Brazilian variants of coronavirus have been found in India, health officials said Tuesday.

The Health Ministry told a news conference that 187 people had tested positive for the UK variant.

"In India, the [South Africa] strain has been detected in four South Africa returnees in January 2021," said Balram Bhargava, head of the Indian Council of Medical Research. He said all of the travelers and contacts have been quarantined.

Bhargava noted that a single case of the Brazilian variant was detected during the first week of February from a Brazilian returnee.

"The virus strain has been successfully isolated and cultured at ICMR-NIV [National Institute of Virology], and experiments to assess vaccines efficacy on this strain are underway," he said.

Dr. Vinod Paul, a member of the National Institute for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog, the government's main policy think tank, said infections in India are declining.

He also said 24 countries have been sent the coronavirus vaccine from Indian soil.

As of Tuesday, the total number of infections in India is nearly 11 million and the death toll stands at 155,813.

Nearly 9 million people have been vaccinated, according to the Health Ministry.