B’luru: UK returnee’s primary contact tests positive for new Covid strain

Bengaluru, Jan 2 : Karnataka Health Minister K. Sudhakar on Saturday said that one primary contact of a passenger who returned from the UK recently, tested positive for the new strain of coronavirus. With this, the number of people who tested positive for the new strain has touched 10 in the state.
“All 10 patients are undergoing treatment in a designated hospital,” he said after inspecting a dry run in the model vaccination centre in Yelahanka General Hospital in the northern suburb of Bengaluru.
He said 10 people have so far been confirmed with the new strain of coronavirus infection and among these nine of them had returned from the UK while one is a contact – the mother of one of the UK returnees.
“All of them are undergoing treatment and are without any serious health condition. They will recover soon,” he said.
The minister added, so far 32 people who returned from the UK and 10 of their contacts – a total of 42 persons – have been confirmed positive during the RT-PCR test.
“Their swab samples are sent to the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences (NIMHANS) for carrying out genome sequencing tests and 10 among them were confirmed to be infected by the new variant of the virus,” he explained.