Odisha: 7 UK Returnees Test COVID-19 Positive, No Detection Of New Mutant Strain

Bhubaneswar: In a big relief, State health department Thursday informed that the new strain of mutant COVID-19 has not been detected in any of the samples sent for genome sequencing.

Senior officials said around 204 swab samples were collected from UK returnees and their contacts and were sent for testing as per the protocol. However, the new mutated strain was not detected.

“The new mutantCOVID strain was not detected in any of the samples. However,  7 UK returnees have tested positive for Covid-19,” said Niranjan Mishra, Director Public Health.

According to Mishra, initially we had got a list of 188 UK returnees and after verification it was found that there was duplication of names of seven returnees. Hence, at present we have data regarding 179 returnees.

Out of the total 179 UK returnees, COVID-19 test of 160 returnees and 44 of their contants were conducted. So far, 7 persons including four UK returnees have tested positive for COVID-19.

“The swab samples of three more UK returnees have been sent to ILS Bhubaneswar and three samples sent for Pune for genome sequencing and their reports are awaited,” said Mishra.

Out of the 62 UK returnees in Bhubaneswar, 2 returnees are still untraceable. Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) Prem Chandra Chaudhary today said that out of the total 62 UK returnees, three have been tested positive for COVID-19 in the Capital City.

“Our process to contact the 2 UK returnees is underway. The civic body is taking all possible measures to contain the COVID-19 spread,” said Chaudhary.

(Edited By Devbrat Patnaik)