High alert in UP after 10 test positive for new, more infectious strain of COVID-19

With cases of new, mutated coronavirus being reported in India, the government has taken cognisance of the reports of mutant variant and has put in place a pro-active and preventive strategy to detect and contain the mutant variant.

However, the new strain has created anxiety among state governments. Earlier on Wednesday, a two-year-old girl from Uttar Pradesh's Meerut was found infected with the new COVID-19 strain which was first discovered in the UK.

The family came back from London recently after which, its COVID-19 test was conducted. The parents came out negative, but the report of the girl came positive.

The Uttar Pradesh government has put all districts on high alert along with the health departments. All DMs have been instructed to strictly follow the coronavirus protocols. UP's Director-General of Health, Dr DS Negi is also monitoring all the districts through the State Covid Control Room to avoid any kind of negligence.

As many as 10 people in Uttar Pradesh have tested positive for the new UK strain of Coronavirus. There are cases from Noida, Meerut, Bareilly and Ghaziabad. Apart from these four, other districts in the state too have been put on high alert.

Principal Secretary of the Department of Medicine and Health, Alok Kumar said that samples of all these have been sent to the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology for genomic sequencing in New Delhi.

So far, a total of 1,655 people have returned from the UK to Uttar Pradesh and 1,090 have been identified. While the mobile phones of 565 people are switched off and efforts are on to find them based on their listed address.

While a total of 20 UK returnees to India have tested positive for the new strain of which six people had tested positive for the new COVID-19 strain on Monday.

The Indian government is on high alert and the Centre has imposed a ban on all flights to the UK till December 31, further, it ordered that all UK returnees who had arrived in India in the recent days must be tested.

The new virus strain found in Britain is more infectious and can spread about 70 percent faster than before. Amid the continuing pandemic, the new strain has caused a stir as it is reported to be more transmissible. The variant has now been detected in multiple countries around the world.

Source : DNA India