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 other country has yet reported successful isolation and culture of the UK-variant of SARS-CoV-2.
Culturing 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 adding that vero cell lines were used in the process.
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The UK had recently announced that the newly identified strain of the virus found in its population was up to 70 per cent more infectious.
A total of 29 people tested positive for the new UK variant of SARS-CoV-2 in India so far, the Union Health Ministry said on Friday.
