CHENNAI: A person in Tamil Nadu who returned from the UK recently tested positive for the new Covid-19 super spreader strain.
The 25-year-old from Chennai is admitted to the National Institute of Aging in Guindy, confirmed S Selvanayagam, Tamil Nadu’s director of public health, with TOI.
J Radhakrishnan, state health secretary, said a total of 17 returnees from the UK tested positive for TN. Another 16 people, who were in contact with these patients, also tested positive (by RT-PCR tests).
According to the national task force, no changes to treatment or testing protocols are needed. The returnee admitted to the UK, including the person who has been confirmed with the UK variant, is stable and receiving the best care from a team of TN experts at the respective hospital, Radhakrishnan added.
All 33 samples were sent to the National Institute of Virology in Pune for genomic analysis and have so far received the results from a single sample. Should more returnees from the UK test positive for the new strain, arrangements have been made to treat them in separate wards.
About 2,300 passengers traveled from the UK between November 25 and December 21, according to official data.
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