KARACHI: The new strain of coronavirus linked to a rapid rise in infections in Britain has been detected in three UK returnees, the Sindh Health Department confirmed on Tuesday.

In a Twitter post, the department said: "Samples of 3 UK returnees show a 95 percent match to the new Corona Virus variant from UK in the first phase of Genotyping."

Health officials said they took samples of twelve people upon their return from the UK for genotyping, out of which six turned out to be positive while three showed the new strain of the virus in the first phase.

"The Genotyping showed 95 percent match of the new variant from the UK," they said, adding these samples will go through another phase of genotyping.

The department said the contact tracing of these patients is underway and their contacts are being isolated also.

On December 21, the federal government had declared a temporary suspension on all incoming flights from the United Kingdom for at least a week on the premise of the new COVID strain detection in England which is 'more transmissible than other previously known strains.

"Direct or indirect travel from the UK would be temporarily suspended, starting 11:59 p.m. on 22nd of December 2020," the press release on the new development read.