All of them had recently arrived in the Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation area of Maharashtra`s Thane. "318 people returned from the foreign countries recently in Thane`s Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation area. 12 people are untraceable. A search operation is on to locate them," said KDMC chief Vijay Sooryavanshi.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray in a cabinet meeting directed officials to ramp up vaccination, especially in areas where the proportion of vaccinated persons is low.
The new variant of COVID-19 was first reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO) from South Africa on November 25. As per the WHO, the first known confirmed B.1.1.529 infection was from a specimen collected on November 9 this year.