New Covid strain: 13 contacts of UK returnee test negative

Kolkata: Around 13 people who were initially suspected to be carrying new coronavirus strain after coming in contact with the UK returned youth found positive with the new strain, have tested negative for the UK strain giving a huge sigh of relief to the State Health department.

A senior health department official on Tuesday said that no other patients have tested positive for the new strain in Bengal. Though, many of those who came in contact with the new strain infected youth, a UK returnee have been under surveillance.

The UK returnee youth, son of a senior health official in the state has been released from the Superspecialty ward of the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital where he had been under treatment for over two weeks. He has been instructed to remain in home isolation for another 14 days.

After the new strain was found in the youth, the Health department started contact tracing to identify those who might have come in close contact with the infected youth. As many as 540 people were identified by the health department as they came in contact with the youth. All of them were asked to remain in isolation. RT-PCR was conducted on at least 220 people out of the total number. The Health department found the suspected elements in the report of these 13 people. The health officials detected some symptoms of UK strain in their sample report.

They did not waste time and their samples were sent to the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics in Kalyani. They were admitted to the isolation ward of the Beliaghata ID Hospital on an emergency basis. As their reports came negative with the new strain they have been released.

All of them have been urged to remain under home quarantine for 14-16 days. The health department would also keep a watch on them from time

to time.