New strain enters Chhattisgarh?; 4 UK Returnees Tested Positive with COVID-19 Virus

Raipur: Earlier this week, a total of 13 passengers who traveled from the UK to Chhattisgarh, went ‘missing’ without going through a proper diagnosis for the virus. Later, the UK-returnees were tracked again in other states, and 4 of them were tested positive with COVID-19.

Among the infected passengers, there are people hailing from Chhattisgarhi districts such as Durg and Bilaspur. Their samples have already been sent to the Serum Institute of India, Pune. The samples will now be tested for the mutated VUI 202012/01, the ‘super-spreader’ strain of the coronavirus.

The district hospitals in Chhattisgarh have isolated the affected patients in separate wards from other COVID-19 patients; and the family members of the affected UK-returnees have been instructed to be in isolation, while notices have been pasted on the entrances of their residences to alert the general public not to enter their houses.

Dr. Dharmendra Gahwai has declared – “The mutated strain is more contagious, but the good news is the upcoming vaccine will be effective against it”.

Notably, the Union Government has divided the list of passengers traveling to India from the UK into two categories, passengers who traveled between November 25 and December 8 fall under one category, while the other category consists of passengers traveling between December 9 and December 23.