BENGALURU: UK returnees who came to Karnataka between November 25 and December 25 will be under home isolation for 28 days and first 14 days the Health Department will monitor them, while the last 14 days they have to check themselves for Covid symptoms, said Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar after a meeting with the Technical Advisory Committee on Wednesday.
During the period, two flights, carrying 2,500 passengers, arrived in Karnataka from the UK. “Details of passengers are available and every single passenger will be kept under strict vigilance. RT-PCR tests will be done if they are symptomatic. If they are positive, the test samples will be sent for genomic sequencing to NIMHANS, IISc or NCBS to determine if the strain of the virus is the new one found in the UK,” he said. The statement of a political leader that 14,000 people had arrived from the UK is completely baseless. “There is no need for the government to hide data. Politicians should get their facts right before they speak,” he said.
Many people who arrived from the UK are spread across the state and testing and tracing of contacts is underway in districts. Five such passengers in Tumakuru district have tested negative. Four of them in Tumakuru town and one in Tiptur are in home isolation, said DHO Dr Nagendrappa. Mysuru has 137 people who returned from the UK between December 1 and 21. As many as 119 came between December 1 and 20. Eighteen, who arrived on December 21, have tested negative, while others are being traced to find out whether they underwent tests, said Deputy Commissioner Rohini Sindhuri.
A separate counter will be set up at Town Hall on Thursday for UK returnees and their contacts to get tested. In Hassan, of the 18 who arrived, all but 6 have been traced, and they have been advised home isolation. Their samples have been sent for testing, said DHO Dr Satish. A woman and her young daughter who returned to Bidar on Tuesday are in home isolation. Eight people identified as primary contacts have tested negative, while the results of 10 secondary contacts, sent to Bidar Institute of Medical Sciences, are awaited, said DC Ramchandran R.
Eight people who came to the district from Britain, Canada and other countries have tested negative. But they have been asked to quarantine for 14 days. Two each are from Udupi and Brahmavar, three from Karkala, and one from Byndoor. One of the returnees is pregnant. Twelve such passengers are in Uttara Kannada and are in home quarantine, district officials said. They have tested negative. The district administration in Dharwad tracked and quarantined five people, who tested negative, officials said.
Eleven people underwent tests in Chitradurga district, DC Kavitha S Mannikeri said. All of them have tested negative on RAT, but RT-PCR results are awaited. Seven people and their contacts in Davanagere district are being monitored by health authorities. All of them have tested negative, said DC Mahantesh Bilagi. All seven people in Kalaburagi have undergone tests, said DHO Dr Rajashekar Male. Two of them have since moved to Bidar. The remaining five will be in quarantine for a fortnight and their results are awaited.
SOPs for passengers at airports, seaports
Passengers coming from the UK to Karnataka’s seaports and airports from December 21 to 23 will have to undergo an RT-PCR test on arrival even if they are carrying a negative test report. If a positive sample is found, a spike gene-based RT-PCR test should also be performed by an appropriate laboratory. Passengers testing positive will be isolated in an institutional isolation facility in a separate (isolation) unit coordinated by the respective district health authorities and positives will not be allowed home isolation, irrespective of symptoms till genomic sequencing is completed, it stated.