Six persons have been found infected with the UK variant of coronavirus in Madhya Pradesh's Indore district, a senior official said on Friday.
The infected patients, all of them males aged between 19 and 49 years, have no history of foreign travel, the official said.
In light of this, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan directed officials to further intensify efforts to check the spread of the virus, he said.
"We had sent nearly 100 samples for genome sequencing to Delhi-based National Center for Disease Control (NCDC) and on examination, it was found that six among them were infected with SARS-CoV-2 virus UK variant," Indore collector Manish Singh told PTI.
"None of the infected men had gone on foreign tours recently, and we are tracing those who had come in contact with them," he added.
The chief minister reviewed the Covid-19 situation in the Indore district during a virtual meeting.
"Experts have said that the UK variant of the virus spreads faster than the other variants and as per the directives given by the chief minister, we will intensify efforts to check the spread," the official said.
Use of masks at business establishments will be strictly enforced, he said.
Night curfew will have to be imposed if there is a spurt in cases in the next three days, Singh said.
Amit Malakar, the nodal officer for prevention of Covid-19, said the six infected persons are in home isolation and their condition is being monitored.
Indore has recorded 60,386 Covid-19 cases and 933 casualties so far.