India Isolates SARS-CoV-2: ICMR Says, 'India Successfully Cultures UK-Variant Of Novel Coronavirus'

In a Twitter post today, ICMR wrote "UK-variant of the virus, with all signature changes, is now successfully isolated and cultured at the National Institute of Virology from the clinical specimens collected from UK-returnees."

Representative Image: PIC/PTI

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Saturday informed that India in a first successfully cultured the new viral strain on the horizon (UK-variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the coronavirus disease (Covid-19). In a Twitter post today, the country’s apex medical body wrote "UK-variant of the virus, with all signature changes, is now successfully isolated and cultured at the National Institute of Virology (NIV) from the clinical specimens collected from UK-returnees." The research centre said that SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing Covid-19, was being tracked through countrywide network of ICMR-laboratories since early days of the epidemic in India.

According to the centre, no country has yet reported successful isolation and culture of the UK-variant of SARS-CoV-2. In India, Vero cell lines were used by the scientists of ICMR-NIV to culture the UK-variant of the virus. The new and more contagious Covid-19 strain, that has emerged in the UK sparking off serious panic in many countries including India, has managed to shift the focus from the regular Covid-19 cases. The new strain of Covid-19, code-named as B.1.1.7, has been widely tracked in the UK in the recent times. The British Government had recently announced that the newly identified strain of the virus found in their population is up to 70 per cent more transmissible, following which India sprung into action.