Newsinc24 Team 
More infectious South African and Brazilian strains of the coronavirus have been detected in India. According to Dr Balaram Bhargavm DG ICMR,at least one case of the Brazilian variant of Covid-19 and four cases of the South African variant, have been found inthe country. Addressing the media briefing in New Delhi on Tuesday, Dr Bhargava said that the infected people and their contacts have been quarantined.There are 187 cases of the UK strain in India, Dr Bhargava said. All their contacts have been isolated and tested.The ICMR chief said that experiments are underway to assess the vaccine's effectiveness against South African and Brazilian variants as they are different from the UK variant.
"We have done disembarkations, mandatory RT-PCR tests for travelers coming from UK. Those who tested positive, their genome sequencing is being done. This is a good strategy. I hope... we might follow this similar strategy for flights from South Africa and Brazil," said Rajesh Bhushan, Health Secretary. "There are no direct flights from South Africa or Brazil, so the health ministry and the civil aviation ministry are in touch on the steps to be taken on the matter," he said. The four people who have tested positive for the strain in India are from Angola, Tanzania and South Africa.
The South African variant is circulating in 41 countries around the world, including the US. The UK variant has spread to 82 countries and the Brazilian strain of Covid has spread to nine countries. The cases have emerged at a time there has been a sharp drop in the number of Covid cases in India, with just a few states like Maharashtra and Kerala battling a spike. The South African and Brazilian strains can more easily infect a person's lungs than the UK mutation, scientists say. All three strains have gone through changes to their spike protein, or the part of the virus which attaches to human cells, and they seem to be better at infecting cells, according to scientists.
