No. of people tested +ve for UK Covid variant climbs to 96 in India: Govt

New Delhi: The number of people who have tested positive for the new UK variant of SARS-CoV-2 in India has climbed to 96, the Health ministry said on Monday.

Till Saturday, the number of such people was 90.

"The total number of persons found infected with the mutant UK strain of COVID-19 is 96," the ministry said.

All these people were kept in single-room isolation at designated healthcare facilities by the respective state governments, it had earlier said.

Four passengers travelling on Air India's London-Delhi flight tested positive for COVID-19 on arrival, a top official of Genestrings Diagnostic Centre said on Monday.

Genestrings runs a lab at the Delhi airport to test incoming passengers for COVID-19.

Meanwhile, with 16,311 new Coronavirus cases being reported in a span of 24 hours, the lowest in around six-and-half months, India's COVID-19 tally rose to 1,04,66,595, while the recoveries have surged to 1,00,92,909, according to the Union Health ministry's data updated on Monday.

The death toll reached 1,51,160 with 161 more fatalities, the lowest in the last seven-and-half-months, the data updated at 8 am showed.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 1,00,92,909, pushing the national COVID-19 recovery rate to 96.43 per cent, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.44 per cent.

The COVID-19 active caseload remained below three lakh. There are 2,22,526 active Coronavirus infections in the country which comprise 2.13 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.

According to the ICMR, 18,17,55,831 samples have been tested so far with 6,59,209 samples being tested on Sunday.

A total of 1,51,160 deaths have been reported so far in the country, including 50,061 from Maharashtra followed by 12,222 from Tamil Nadu, 12,140 from Karnataka, 10,678 from Delhi, 9,941 from West Bengal, 8,495 from Uttar Pradesh, 7,129 from Andhra Pradesh and 5,445 from Punjab.