With the emergence of a new mutant coronavirus strain in the UK, passenger samples have now been sent to NIV Pune to identify the virus strain.
A passenger, who arrived at Chennai Domestic Airport from the UK via Delhi, tested positive for the new coronavirus on Tuesday. Tamil Nadu Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan, confirming the positive case of COVID-19, said that the samples were sent to the National Institute of Virology in Pune to identify if this could be the newest spending strain of the virus in the UK .
Addressing reporters at 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 strain type. Among the 533 passengers on the Delhi-based flight, we tested eight members, of which one person tested positive. We have kept 15 passengers in quarantine and transferred the COVID-19 positive individual passenger to the King’s Institute, Guindy. ” said, said.
After the UK reported that a new strain of virus is spreading faster than the previous strain of coronavirus, several countries, including India, have suspended flight operations to and from the country.
Also read: Explained: What we know about the new mutant strain of coronavirus in the UK
The Tamil Nadu Health Secretary also said that passengers coming from foreign countries or interstate travelers must undergo home quarantine. “If passengers are coming from a foreign country, they must have a RT-PCR test 96 hours before the trip, according to the recommendation of health experts. Even if passengers test negative, they may have contracted the infection during the journey, which is why we are testing passengers who returned from the UK in the last 10 days, as a saturation test was performed at IIT-M. ” said. .
Speaking 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 UK via an automatically generated electronic pass. Therefore , we are monitoring 1,088 people who returned in the last 10 days. We are also monitoring the borders of Kerala and Karnataka. Therefore, the public should not panic. “
Also read: Karnataka demands quarantine, RT-PCR for UK passengers after fear of new COVID-19 strain
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