UK strain detected in 4 on Wed

KOLKATA: Four new patients were detected with UK strain in the city taking the total tally to ten so far. All of them have been undergoing treatment at the Beliaghata ID Hospital.

The State Health department has started contract tracing to ascertain the persons who might have come in close contact with the UK strain infected patients. The incident has triggered tension among some people as the number of UK strain infected patients is going up.

State government has made it mandatory for the flyers from various states to produce RT-PCR negative reports at the Calcutta airport. The infection rate has already gone up in the states like Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu. The health experts are not ruling out the second wave of Covid infection.The infection rate in the state has slightly gone up compared to the figures registered in December.

Though, single day infection in the State has been fluctuating between 180-220 in the past few days. According to Health department sources, around 11 people have recently arrived in the state from abroad. Covid tests were performed on all of them. Four of them had tested positive for Covid. The Health department later sent their samples to the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics in Kalyani. The reports showed that these patients have been affected with UK strain.

It may be mentioned here that a few days ago a patient was detected positive for South African strain. Meanwhile, in another development, the Health department on Wednesday has issued a fresh advisory on influenza A (H1N1). "In Bengal, there is a decline in testing and reporting of influenza A (H1N1) due to diversion of technical resources and working time to Covid. To strengthen the surveillance and containment of influenza A, it is necessary to categorize and enhance testing for seasonal influenza as per State Guideline for diagnosis and management of H1N1 influenza," reads the advisory.Advisory also says that clinicians have to be encouraged to advise testing for H1N1 as per existing guidelines for proper and early treatment. The advisory also directed to arrange testing all Covid negative SARI cases for influenza A.