Mumbai, Dec 27 (IANS): In an alarming development, as many as 16 returnees from the United Kingdom (UK), where a new variant of coronavirus was detected recently, have tested positive in RT PCR tests conducted on their arrival in Maharashtra, health officials said here on Saturday.

The State health authorities, who have been subjecting all the passengers arriving from the UK to RT-PCR tests ever since the detection of a new strain of the SARS-CoV-2 there, have so far screened 1,122 passengers.

Of these, 16 were diagnosed positive for Covid-19, including, four from Nagpur, three each from Mumbai and Thane, two from Pune and one each from Nanded, Ahmednagar, Raigad and Aurangabad.

"The samples of positive patients will be sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune for genomic sequencing," said a state health official..

"Close contacts of all positive patients are also being traced. Till today, out of 72 close contacts traced, two have tested positive for Covid-19," the official added.

Meanwhile, the state reported 2,854 fresh infections taking up the total number of infections in Maharashtra from 19,13,382 to 19,16,236.

Mumbai Metropolitan Region deaths have mounte to 19,007.

Similarly, with 60 new deaths, the Covid-19 toll in the state rose from 49,129 to 49,189.

The recovery rate in the state dropped from 94.04 per cent to 94.34 per cent.

In Mumbai, with 12 new fatalities, the toll went up from 11,056 to 11,068, while the infected cases rose by 534 to trigger a jump in the total infections from 2,89,800 to 2,90,336.