227 UK returnees identified, to be kept in isolation: Uttarakhand officials on COVID scare

Amid the scare over the new strain of Coronavirus found in the UK, Uttarakhand health department has written to all the 13 Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) of the State asking them to trace the people who returned from the UK and monitor their health for 28 days as a precautionary measure. The Uttarakhand health department in its letter to CMOs has asked to ensure that all the UK returnees since November 25 should be tested.

"UK RETURN' must be mentioned on the sample container box and the list of samples must be pasted on the outside. A separate list of the samples (mentioning UK RETURN) must be sent through email to the lab and State Covid Control Room before sending the samples. All such Samples must be packed in a separate container," the letter said.

Apprising on the situation, JC Pandey, the nodal officer at State Covid Control Room has stated that 227 people have been identified so far who have returned to Uttarakhand from the UK since November 25 and they will be kept in isolation.

"Of the 227 people who have come to the State from the UK, 138 are from Dehradun, 32 from Nainital, 25 from Udham Singh Nagar and 18 from Haridwar and rest are from other districts of the States. All the CMOs have been asked to isolate these people," Pandey told ANI.

"One woman who returned from the UK to Kashipur in Udham Singh Nagar district has tested positive for COVID-19. It is yet to be confirmed whether it is a UK variant of the coronavirus," he added.

All primary contacts of COVID-19 positive patients must also be tested and they should be placed in institutional quarantine, the health department directed the CMOs.

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Institutional isolation facility for positive passengers

The letter also enclosed the detailed guidelines issued by Union Health Ministry according to which all passengers travelling from or transiting through airports in the UK and disembarking in India would be subjected to RT-PCR test on arrival. In the case of a positive sample, it is recommended that spike gene-based RT-PCR test should also be performed by an appropriate laboratory. Those who are found negative on testing with RT-PCR at the airport would be advised quarantine at home, it said.

"Passengers testing positive shall be isolated in an institutional isolation facility in a separate (isolation) unit coordinated by the respective State Health Authorities. They would earmark specific facilities for such isolation and treatment. Necessary action to send the samples to National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune or any other appropriate lab for genomic sequencing will be initiated at the facility level," Union Health Ministry has stated.

The Civil Aviation Ministry suspended flights to and from the UK starting from the midnight of December 23 to December 31, as a preemptive action against the entry and spread of the mutant Coronavirus in India. The new strain of Coronavirus is more dominating than the previous one, according to the experts. This variant is estimated by the European Center for Disease Control (ECDC) to be 70 per cent more transmissible and affecting the younger population than the previous one.

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