These include the 25 cases which were announced till Thursday. "All the 29 persons are in physical isolation in health facilities," an official said.
They have named this unique cluster of virus population as 'Clade A3i' found in 41 per cent of the genome sequenced in India.
The Omicron variant was first detected in India in Bengaluru with two people testing positive for it comprising a South African national of Indian origin and a doctor.
Their close contacts have also been put under quarantine. Comprehensive contact tracing has been initiated for co-travellers, family contacts and others. Genome sequencing on other specimens is going on, the ministry said.
All these persons have been kept in single room isolation in designated health care facilities by respective state governments.
The ministry said the mutated UK strain was detected in eight samples at the National Centre for Disease Control, one at the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics, Kalyani (near Kolkata), one at the National Institute of Virology Pune, seven at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences Hospital Bengaluru, two at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad and one at the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, Delhi.
The B.1.617 variant of SARS-CoV2, also being called a 'double mutant' or the 'Indian strain', has been found prevalent largely in Maharashtra and Delhi that have been severely hit by a devastating second wave of the pandemic.
All these people have been kept in single room isolation in designated healthcare facilities by respective state governments and their close contacts have also been put under quarantine, the ministry said.
The study, published in the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, noted that the 'nanobodies' can prevent infection with the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 by blocking its interaction with the protein ACE2, which it uses as a gateway to enter and infect cells.
India-born Nobel laureate Sir Venkatraman Ramakrishnan has been confirmed as president elect of Britain's prestigious Royal Society.
For the first time in Tamil Nadu, a lion has died of coronavirus while nine others in the pride have tested positive for the infection at a zoo near Chennai, an official said.
Nasal droplets fall within 2 metres from a COVID-19 infected person and the aerosols can travel in air up to 10 metres, the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser said on Thursday, adding that proper ventilation can decrease the risk of transmission.
8 Asiatic lions in the zoo in have tested positive for COVID-19 after their saliva samples were thoroughly examined by CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad, Rakesh Mishra, advisor of the premier research institute said.
He's the Indian Nobel Prize winner you probably haven't heard of.
All these persons have been kept in single room isolation at designated health care facilities by respective state governments and their close contacts have also been put under quarantine, the ministry said.
Sarmistha Sen, who was based in Plano, Texas, was randomly attacked and killed while jogging on August 1 near the Chisholm Trail Park.
It said clinical trials of the drug 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG) showed that it helps in faster recovery of hospitalised patients and reduces supplemental oxygen dependence.
a team led by ecologist Uma Ramakrishnan and her student Vinay Sagar from the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore, have discovered that the coat colouration and patterning which make the wild cats appear dark boil down to a single mutation
'People need not panic over new research findings that coronavirus is airborne as studies cited by a group of over 200 scientists only convey it can be 'at least temporarily' in air'
The trio used the same principles of evolution -- genetic change and selection -- to develop proteins used in a range of fields.
An IIT Roorkee graduate, Chandran joins a distinguished group of 24.
Scientists associated with Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics (INSACOG), the government panel that conducts research on different variants of the coronavirus, said they were surprised at noted virologist Shahid Jameel's decision to quit the group and wondered whether he was disillusioned with the government's handling of the pandemic.
What Indrani doesn't know is that even if she is handed down a sentence of not guilty by the judge at the end of the long and meandering Sheena Bora murder trial, for India's legion of armchair judges, she will always be guilty. She won't be able to change that. Ever.
'We still have 30,000-40,000 cases.' 'It is plateauing, but the number should definitely come down more so that we can convert the pandemic into an endemic.'
The company has been developing donor-derived stem cell platforms.
''A third wave is very likely to come because infection is still around.' 'But it can be just a ripple.'
'If the government does its job of vaccinating all the population with the booster dose, and also monitoring the virus, and we do our job of wearing a mask and avoiding crowded places, we will be free of this virus in a few months.' time.'
As India holds its breath for the Covid vaccination to be begin, Sudhir Bisht provides a quick checklist of what you must know about the vaccines that will be administered to citizens.
The annual award includes a pure gold medal, a citation and a prize purse worth $ 100,000 or its equivalent in the Indian rupees.
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Students at the University of Surrey imprinted their mobile phones onto bacteriological growth Petri dishes to see what they might carry.
'He came back from the US only to work for his country.' 'He has invested his fortunes to build this company and is married to his work.' 'Rarely does one see such commitment.'
'Mortality or hospitalisation has not increased in South Africa because of the new variant.' 'There is nothing to show so far that it is more infectious.' 'I am of the opinion that at the moment, there is no reason to panic.'
The second phase of Covid-19 vaccination in India will begin from March ,1 in which people above 60 years of age and those above 45 years of age with comorbidities will be vaccinated, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said on Wednesday.
Raj Barathur -- Indian American entrepreneur, geneticist, professor and biopharmaceutical industry leader -- stayed the course even when diagnosed with lung cancer
The Indian government and private firms have stepped up efforts to develop a vaccine to halt the spread of COVID-19 which has claimed over 3,700 lives with more than 1,25,000 cases in the country.
'No matter how much the political pressure is, I cannot say I will bring the Moon for you tomorrow!'
The IP & Science business of Thomson Reuters has announced its 2013 "Nobel-class" Citation Laureates on Wednesday, which names 28 researchers representing 22 distinct academic and research organisations, and six different countries.
Bhargava is a pioneer in the field of biotechnology in the country.
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