With the emergence of a new mutant coronavirus strain in the UK, the samples of the passenger have now been sent to NIV Pune to identify the strain of the virus.
A passenger, who arrived at the Chennai Domestic Airport from the United Kingdom via Delhi, has tested positive for the novel coronavirus on Tuesday. The Tamil Nadu Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan, confirming the positive case of COVID-19, said that the samples have been sent to National Institute of Virology, Pune to identify if this could be the new strain of virus spending in the UK.
Addressing the reporters in Chennai airport, Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan said, “This may not be the COVID-19 strain reported from the UK but we have sent the sample to NIV Pune to identify the type of strain. So we will announce based on the findings. Among the 533 passengers on the Delhi-based flight, we tested eight members of which one person has tested positive. We have kept 15 passengers under quarantine and have moved the individual COVID-19 positive passenger to King’s Institute, Guindy,” he said.
After the UK reported a new strain of virus rapidly spreading than the earlier novel coronavirus strain, several countries, including India, have suspended flight operations to and from the country.
Also read: Explained: What we know of the new mutant strain of coronavirus in UK
The Tamil Nadu Health Secretary also said that the passengers coming from foreign countries or inter-state travellers should undertake home quarantine. “If the passengers are coming from a foreign country, they should take an RT-PCR test 96 hours prior to travel, based on the recommendation of the health experts. Even if the passengers turn negative, they might have picked up the infection during travel that’s why we are conducting tests of the passengers who returned from the UK in the last 10 days, like a saturation test was undertaken in IIT-M,” he said.
Talking to Puthiyathalaimurai, Tamil Nadu Health Minister Vijayabaskar said, “We have received the list of people who returned to Chennai via various transit points from the United Kingdom through an auto-generated e-pass. So, we are monitoring 1,088 people who returned in the past 10 days. We are also monitoring the borders of Kerala and Karnataka. Hence, the public need not panic.”
Also read: Karnataka mandates quarantine, RT-PCR for passengers from UK after new COVID-19 strain fear
Source: The News Minute