Hyderabad: With seven people who returned from the United Kingdom testing positive for COVID-19 in Telangana, fears have mounted that the new strain of the virus may have reached Indian shores. However medical experts were yet to ascertain whether these returnees were suffering from the new strain of the pandemic.
Similar situation was prevailing in neighboring Andhra Pradesh where a female UK-returnee tested positive and was kept in a special isolation ward.
Authorities were put on alert as about 1,200 people had returned from UK to Telangana and about 300 of them were in Hyderabad and others were spread in many districts.
In isolation
Officials told the media that they have already traced 835 and efforts were on to identify others and isolate them for monitoring.
All the returnees have been asked to get in touch with the health officials and remain in isolation to ensure their near and dear ones were not infected.
As the reports from UK about the new strain of the virus have created an alarm, state authorities have sent the samples of the positive cases to the Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) in Hyderabad for advanced tests.
In Andhra Pradesh also the authorities have sent the samples of the suspected cases among the UK returnees to CCMB to find out whether they were affected by the mutant.
More careful
Telangana Health Minister E Rajendar has asked the people to be more careful in new of the new threat as well as the festivals of Christmas, New Year and Sankranti.
The UK returnee who tested positive in Andhra Pradesh had arrived in New Delhi from London and travelled to Rajahmundry long with her son by train.
Authorities have found that another 8 passengers had also travelled in the same compartment and they were also traced in Visakhapatnam and sent to the special isolation ward at King George Hospital. While the lady tested positive, her son’s test returned negative. But he was also being kept in isolation as a precaution.
East Godavari District Medical and Health Officer Gowrishwara Rao said, “a medical team was closely monitoring the condition and mother and the son”.
