CHANDIGARH: Five people from Haryana who returned to India from the United Kingdom recently have tested positive for COVID-19 and their samples have been sent for genome sequencing to check whether it is a new strain detected in the UK, an official said Tuesday.
As many as 1,740 people have returned to Haryana from the UK recently, he said.
"From the list given to us by the Bureau of Immigration, we followed up on 1,740 people who had returned to the state. Around 800-900 have been tested so far," Additional Chief Secretary (Home and Health Department) Rajeev Arora told PTI.
Out of these, five have been found positive for COVID-19.
Now, their samples have been sent for genome sequencing to CSIR lab to check if any of them carries the new mutated strain of coronavirus, he said.
"The lab results will tell whether these five found positive have the original COVID strain or the mutant strain," he said.
All those found positive have been quarantined, officials said.
India had earlier suspended all passenger flights from the UK till December 31 in the wake of the emergence of the mutated variant of coronavirus.
Moreover, passengers coming from the UK through flights are being tested for COVID-19 at airports.
Six people who returned to India from the United Kingdom have tested positive for the new mutated strain of coronavirus, the Union Health Ministry said on Tuesday.
It said the UK variant genome of SARS-CoV-2 was detected in three samples in the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences Hospital (NIMHANS)-Bengaluru, two in the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) in Hyderabad and one in the National Institute of Virology (NIV) Pune.
The presence of the new UK variant has already been reported by Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia, Italy, Sweden, France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, Japan, Lebanon and Singapore.