Lucknow, Dec 22 (IANS): The Uttar Pradesh government has sounded an alert in the state after reports of a new mutated strain of Corona virus having emerged in UK.

Additional chief secretary, information, Navneet Sehgal, has said that the government is monitoring the situation closely.

"Already, government has stopped all flights from UK as a precautionary measure, while the Uttar Pradesh government was also monitoring the situation. We appeal to the people not to let down their guard and continue to follow all safety protocols," he said.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath has directed officials to continue with aggressive testing, tracking and treatment and said that there should be no laxity in ensuring safety protocols.

Additional chief secretary, health, Amit Mohan Prasad, meanwhile, said that the recovery rate of Covid-19 patients the state has gone up to 95.65 per cent.

The total casualty due to the virus so far is over 8,200.

He said that around 4.91 lakh health department teams have visited 1.76 lakh areas by reaching 3.05 crore houses and checking the health of over 14.92 crore people.