Mutant Covid-19 Strain: 109 UK Returnees Go 'Untraceable' In Pune

The Pune Municipal Corporation has now rushed to  seekmhelp from the city police as the passengers who came to Pune from UK are untraceable since December 1. 

The Pune district administration had received a list of 542 passengers who returned from the UK in the last 28 days out of which 109 are untraceable. 

Pune Municipal Corporation's health chief Dr. Ashish Bharti has written a letter to the police in this regard. After a new variant of coronavirus was detected in the UK, the Union government had asked for tracing of passengers who arrived in India from the UK between November 25 and December 23.

Although there are no direct flights from UK to Pune, the 542 passengers from UK arrived in Pune from Mumbai. Their contact numbers and addresses were given to the Municipal Corporation by the concerned agency. However, it appears the 109 returnees had either given wrong address or telephone numbers in the declaration forms which has resulted in their tracing or contacting difficult.

The samples of those found positive for infection will be sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV) for genome sequencing to check if the virus is the same as the new strain, as per the Maharashtra government's guidelines.

For those who have already tested positive after returning from the UK, their swab samples will be taken again and sent to the NIV for genome sequencing.