India / TN resident tests positive for UK variant of coronavirus: State Health Secretary

Chennai: One person has tested positive for the UK variant of coronavirus in Chennai and the patient is currently receiving treatment at King’s Institute in Guindy. Speaking to the media on Tuesday, the Tamil Nadu Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan confirmed the positive case and urged people to not panic. The Health Secretary also said that the results of the remaining 29 people are awaited from the National Institute of Virology, Pune, where genome sequencing is being carried out.  

Addressing the reporters, Radhakrishnan said, “One person has tested positive for the new variant of coronavirus and he is receiving treatment at a seperate room at King’s Institute in Guindy. We have already tested the remaining passengers who travelled along with him in the plane and their samples have turned negative.” 

He added, “The condition of the person who tested positive for the UK variant is stable and his health condition is improving.” While the UK variant is believed to be more infectious, the treatment for COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus remains the same. 

On Tuesday, the Union government stated that six persons have been infected with the UK variant of the virus. Of the six members, the government said that three samples tested at NIMHANS in Bengaluru, two samples at Centre for Molecular Biology in Hyderabad and one from National Institute of Virology in Pune returned positive for the UK variant. The patients who have tested positive are treated at an isolation ward designated by the respective state governments.

From November 25 to December 23, nearly 33,000  passengers have landed in India from UK airports. After the UK announced that a new variant was spreading in the country, the Indian government suspended the flight operations from the foreign nation from December 23 to December 31. All the passengers who reached Chenani during the previous month were instructed to take RT-PCR tests.

The Health Ministry has also created Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) for surveillance and to understand the spread of COVID-19 and its evolution in the country.