“We have started producing at risk because we know that it will be an uphill task — in the Indian context it’s small,” Ella said in an interview from Hyderabad on Monday. “That’s a huge challenge in front of us when we think of the hundreds of millions of doses even if half the country needs to be vaccinated.”

The discovery of the new strain, just months before vaccines are expected to be widely available, sowed new panic in a pandemic that has killed about 1.7 million people worldwide and more than 67,000 in Britain.At least two other flights from Britain have landed in India since the announcement of the flight ban, one in Mumbai and the other in the northern city of Amritsar.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 96,06,111, pushing the national recovery rate to 95.53 per cent, while the COVID-19 case fatality rate stands at 1.45 per cent, according to the data.

The COVID-19 active caseload remained below 4 lakh for the 15th consecutive day.

There are 3,03,639 active coronavirus cases in the country which comprise 3.02 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.

The ban will come into effect on Wednesday and all passengers arriving from the UK before then will be tested on arrival at airports, the ministry said.

The NSE Nifty 50 index ended 3.14% lower at 13,328.40, wiping out six straight sessions of gains up to Friday. The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex fell 3% to 45,553.96.

European shares opened lower at 0800 GMT as investors worried about the economic impact of a new coronavirus strain which has seen several European countries shut their borders to the UK.