ICMR said no country has reported isolation and cultivation of the UK coronavirus strain (Representative)
New Delhi:
India has successfully cultivated the new strain of coronavirus, which originated in the United Kingdom, the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) said on Saturday.
In a tweet, the ICMR stated that no country has yet reported on the successful isolation and cultivation of the UK variant of SARS-CoV-2.
Culture is the process by which cells grow under controlled conditions, usually outside of their natural environment.
“The UK variant of the virus, with all signature changes, is now successfully isolated and cultured at the National Institute of Virology (NIV) from clinical specimens collected from UK returnees,” said the ICMR.
India successfully cultivates the newest viral strain on the horizon (British variant of SARS-CoV-2). # ICMRFIGHTSCOVID19# IndiaFightsCOVID19#CoronaUpdatesInIndia# COVID-19# Unite2FightCorona@MoHFW_INDIA@PIB_India@DrHVoffice@drharshvardhan@AshwiniKChoubey@icmr_nivpic.twitter.com/vaCMQMSHOJ
– ICMR (@ICMRDELHI) January 2, 2021
The research body said ICMR-NIV scientists used vero cell lines to grow the variant of the virus in the UK.
The UK had recently announced that the new strain of the virus identified in its population was up to 70% more infectious.
A total of 29 people have tested positive for the new British variant of SARS-CoV-2 in India so far, the Union Health Ministry said on Friday.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is posted from a syndicated channel.)
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