Nine more UK returnees test COVID positive in Telangana

A total of nine more returnees from the United Kingdom, who arrived in Telangana after December 9 tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday, taking the tally of coronavirus cases among the returnees to 16.

Samples of the 16 persons have been sent to the Centre for Cellular and Micro Biology (CCMB) for genome sequencing to confirm its variant. The results are expected in two days.

"Out of 1,200 UK returnees, 926 have been tested and 16 tested positive for COVID19 (including previous 7). These people were in immediate contact with 76 others--they have been put under quarantine. 16 members' samples sent to #CCMB-results expected in 2 days," said Dr G Srinivasa Rao, the Director Public Health of Telangana.

Last week, the new strain of the coronavirus was first detected in the UK. As per the experts, this strain is more transmissible than other SARS-CoV-2 variants.

Following the detection of a new variant of coronavirus, Andhra Pradesh medical and health department on Friday noted that total UK returnees to the state for last one month is 1,148, of which 1,040 have been traced so far and 88 are being traced and 18 are from other states and 16 have invalid addresses.

"982 of the returnees are put in quarantine. Four persons found positive among these people and their fresh samples are sent to CCMB and NIV Pune for testing if it is the new strain. It will take three days to get the result and health department requests that there is no need to pc and all actions are being taken by the department," the Andhra Pradesh health department said.

( With inputs from ANI )