New COVID-19 strains detected in India, UK strain highly transmissible, says PGIMER director

New COVID19 strains have been detected in India and the UK strain is highly transmissible, said Jagat Ram, Director of Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research (PGIMER) on Wednesday, cautioning that all possible precautions must be taken to prevent the rise in cases.

"New COVID-19 strains detected in India and the UK strain is highly transmissible. We should take all possible precautions to prevent the rise in cases. The cases have gone up in the last 2 weeks," said Jagat Ram Director, PGIMER Chandigarh.

He said, "55 COVID-19 cases are currently being administered at the hospital. Though the transmissibility is high, the virulence of the strain is not known", he said.

"The new variant spreads faster. We have to tread carefully as we do not know if the people who have recovered from the coronavirus have any sort of immunity from the new strain," he added.

He further said, "People have started becoming complacent. Some are not wearing masks and not following social distancing norms. Even nurses and health care workers are showing hesitancy in getting themselves vaccinated".

India has reported 13,742 new COVID-19 cases, 14,037 discharges and 104 deaths in the last 24 hours. With this, the total number of COVID-19 cases in India stands at 1,10,30,176 and the active cases tally is 1,46,907.

While as many as 1,56,567 deaths have been reported, a total of 1,07,26,702 people have been discharged.