Health authorities in the Telugu states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh went on alert on Tuesday after two cases of a mutant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus were reported.
While one case was found in Telangana capital Hyderabad, the other was detected in neighboring Andhra Pradesh, health officials said on Tuesday.
They were among the 32 returnees, who were found positive in both the states so far. Their reports were sent to the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) for genome sequencing.
Two of them were found to be infected by the new strain of the virus recently detected in the UK and is reported to be more infections.
Health officials said both the persons have been kept in single-room-isolation in designated healthcare facilities. Their close contacts have also been put under quarantine. Comprehensive contact tracing has been initiated for co-travelers, family contacts, and others.
In all, 21 returnees from the UK to Telangana had tested coronavirus positive while such flyers in Andhra Pradesh number 11.
So far, three contacts of the UK returnees to Telangana have tested positive for Covid-19. In Andhra Pradesh, 12 contacts of the UK returnees were found infected.
Officials said the health condition of all the UK returnees is stable. The majority of the returnees were asymptomatic.
The health department of Telangana has so far tracked down 1,060. Details of another 58 returnees who left to their home states after landing in Hyderabad were forwarded to the respective states. Six others have returned to their countries.
“So far 996 returnees were tested and out of them 21 turned out to be positive. Results of another nine people are expected,” said Dr. G.Srinivasa Rao, director of public health, Telangana.
A total of 1,363 people from the UK returned to Andhra Pradesh and of them, 1,346 were traced. Efforts were on to trace the remaining 17.
Authorities also traced 5,784 contacts of the UK returnees and sent them for testing.
