So far 6 UK returnee test +ve, state ups ante to trace contacts of new Covid cases

Kolkata: Four more flyers who had returned to the state from the UK recently have tested positive for Covid, triggering fear among many. They have been admitted to the Beliaghata ID Hospital. Their samples will be sent to the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics in Kalyani for testing of new strain.

According to sources in the health department nearly 60 people among the UK returnee having landed at the city airport between November 23 and December 21 were from Kolkata.

Out of the total number, around 20 could not be traced. This has been a major concern for the health department. Even the address which was given to the health department was found to be fake.

Contact tracing of foreign returnees has been strengthened by the health department after the UK strain was identified in the sample of the 38-year-old professional, son of a senior health official in the state.

Fear triggered after a senior KMC official on Saturday said that many of co-flyers of the new strain infected could not be tracked down by the civic bodies.

Around six UK returnees have so far been found with Covid out of which one youth was detected with a new strain who has been undergoing treatment at a complete isolation at the Calcutta Medical College.

State health department is also trying to find out the persons who might have come in contact with the four new Covid patients. The steps have been taken as precautionary arrangements even before they undergo the new strain tests.

According to the health department sources, the four had returned to Kolkata from London on

December 20.

Their samples will be sent for genome sequencing to ascertain whether they were infected with the new and more contagious strain of the disease found in the UK.

"All of them have been kept in isolation in the Beliaghata ID Hospital. All are clinically stable so far, with none requiring any specialised treatment. Their genome sequencing report is awaited," a senior health department official said.