A woman wearing face mask passes by a mural in New Delhi, November 24, 2020. Photo: PTI/ Manvender Vashist
New Delhi: India has successfully cultured the new coronavirus strain which originated in the UK, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said on Saturday.
In a tweet, the ICMR claimed that no country has yet reported successful isolation and culture of the UK-variant of SARS-CoV-2.
Culture is the process by which cells are grown under controlled conditions, generally outside their natural environment.
“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 ICMR said.
India successfully cultures the new viral strain on the horizon (UK-variant of SARS-CoV-2). #ICMRFIGHTSCOVID19 #IndiaFightsCOVID19 #CoronaUpdatesInIndia #COVID19 #Unite2FightCorona @MoHFW_INDIA @PIB_India @DrHVoffice @drharshvardhan @AshwiniKChoubey @icmr_niv pic.twitter.com/vaCMQMSHOJ
— ICMR (@ICMRDELHI) January 2, 2021
The research body said Vero cell lines were used by the scientists of ICMR-NIV to culture the UK-variant of the virus.
The UK had recently announced that the newly identified strain of the virus found in their population was up to 70% more infectious.
A total of 29 people had tested positive for the UK variant of SARS-CoV-2 in India as of Friday, the Union health ministry said.