Hyderabad: A total of 184 people who have returned from the UK to the state of Telangana are difficult to track, having provided wrong addresses and phone numbers. Some of them are also suspected of having moved to other states or other districts.
Also, many others who lived in rented houses have moved and no one knows their new address. 1,216 people are said to have arrived in the state from the UK, of which 937 have been tracked and RT-PCR testing done.
Three contacts of the returnees from the UK tested positive on Saturday. Besids, two more people who returned from the UK tested positive. The state now has 18 people who returned from the UK diagnosed with Covid-19.
Of these, four are from Hyderabad, six from Medchal Malkajgiri, two from Jagtial, one from each of the urban districts of Mancherial, Nalgonda, Ranga Reddy, Sangareddy, Siddipet, and Warangal Urban. The results are awaited to find out if they carry the most infectious mutant strain of SARS-CoV-2 that was found in the United Kingdom.
These 18 people have been kept in institutional isolation in different hospitals. There are 79 contacts out of these 18 who have been quarantined and their health is being monitored as they suffered severe anxiety attacks after they learned of a new strain of virus in the UK.
There are 92 others who came to TS from the UK and went to different states for social gatherings, weddings, celebrations and quite a few of them visited Goa. Surveillance officials in the state are on the ground tracking those who arrived between December 9 and 15.
Officials trying to trace contacts are faced with a blank wall of people who cannot remember whether they came into contact with returnees from the UK or with the infected people in between.
Other states have also been alerted about the movement of people and their place of stay and whereabouts during that time are being detailed for tracking and tracing in those states.
A senior watchdog official said: “It has become a huge task as, once again, we are reaching a large number of people. Since they didn’t have any symptoms of illness, it didn’t make sense for them to be home. People continued with their work and social celebrations as planned. Now they are worried and also their contacts ”.
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