Three UK Covid-19 Strain Cases Found In Odisha: Director, NCDC

Bhubaneswar: Three cases of the mutant UK variant of Covid-19 virus infection have been detected in Odisha, a top Central body disclosed on Wednesday. Director of the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) SK Singh said that the three cases from Odisha were among the 736 cases of the UK variant strain detected across the country so far.

"A total of 771 new strain cases have been detected in 18 states, out of which 736 cases are found carrying UK variant. Other 24 cases are found carrying the South Africa strain while one is of the Brazil strain."

The Odisha government however, clarified that the mutant UK strain in the State were found in the returnees from England in December last year. “It was known during their genome sequencing at the ICMR. But the information was classified apprehending imminent panic in public,” said Additional Chief Secretary, Health, Pradipta Mohapatra.

Meanwhile, Singh said that while out of 736 cases having the UK strain three were from Odisha, Punjab registered a maximum of 336 cases.

Singh’s disclosure comes at a time when Odisha continued to record more than 100 fresh cases in the last 6 days with the positives touching 170 in the last 24 hours.

Of the 170 positives reported on Wednesday, 99 were detected in quarantine centres while the rest 71 are local transmission cases.

Nuapada district, which had reported four positive cases on Tuesday, jumped to 27 in the last 24 hours.

However, the death toll due to coronavirus remained unchanged at 1,919 as no fatalities have been reported since Monday.

With the fresh cases, the total infection in the State has climbed to 3,39,246. Total active cases in Odisha now stood 1,008 while 3,36,266 patients have recovered from the disease so far,government sources said.