Thousands of fliers from the UK have been tested by India's labs in the last few days to determine whether they have contracted the new UK mutant coronavirus strain. Of them, so far, six individuals have tested positive. Three cases came from Bengaluru's NIMHANS, 2 from Hyderabad's CCMB, and 1 from Pune's National Institute of Virology.

The Union Ministry of Health on Tuesday updated that all the individuals have been isolated in separate rooms at the health facilities of respective States. Their primary contacts have been traced diligently by health authorities.

Till December 23, as many as 33,000 returnees from the UK entered India since November 25. Of them, 114 have tested positive for coronavirus.

The new strain is said to be more infectious than the old strain. This is the reason the governments are pro-active in tracking individuals who may have been infected with the new genome.

In order to be cautious, the Indian government recently banned flights from the UK till December 31.