The total number of persons infected with the new Coronavirus strain in India surged to 58 as 20 more persons tested positive for the new UK variant of Sars-CoV-2, the Union Health Ministry said on Tuesday.

"All these persons have been kept in single room isolation in designated Health Care facilities by respective State Governments. Their close contacts have also been put under quarantine. Comprehensive contact tracing has been initiated for co-travellers, family contacts and others. Genome sequencing on other specimens is going on," the ministry said in a statement.

The 20 new cases have been identified at NIV, Pune, the ministry said.

The positive samples are being tested at 10 INSACOG labs (NIBMG Kolkata, ILS Bhubaneswar, NIV Pune, NCCS Pune, CCMB Hyderabad, CDFD Hyderabad, InSTEM Bengaluru, NIMHANS Bengaluru, IGIB Delhi and NCDC Delhi) for genome sequencing.

Of the total cases, 10 samples of the UK variant genome were detected at NIMHANS, Bengaluru; three in Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad; 25 in the National Institute of Virology, Pune; 11 in IGIB, Delhi; eight in NCDC, New Delhi and one in NIBMG, Kolkata, according to the Union Health Ministry.

The INSACOG labs at NCBS InSTEM, Bengaluru, CDFD Hyderabad, ILS Bhubaneswar, and NCCS Pune have so far found no mutant virus.

Meanwhile, India's COVID-19 caseload surged to 1,03,56,844, including 2,31,036 active cases, 99,75,958 recovered cases and 1,49,850 deaths with 16,375 new cases, 29,091 more recoveries and 201 new fatalities, respectively, the ministry added.  

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