THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A 34-year-old Kannur native who had returned from the UK recently tested positive for the new strain of Covid-19 on Friday. So far, 68 people who returned from the UK since December first week have tested positive. Of them, 10 patients, including the Kannur native, were found infected with the mutant strain.
The state has been monitoring the passengers flying down from European countries following a national alert. The returnees have to undergo RT-PCR test on arrival and a quarantine period as per the direction of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Samples of those tested Covid positive are being sent to CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Interactive Biology in Delhi for genome sequencing.
Meanwhile, the state recorded 6,753 fresh Covid cases on Friday, including two UK returnees. The test positivity rate continued to remain at a high rate of 11.63 per cent, out of the 58,057 samples tested. So far, 91,48,957 samples have been tested. Nineteen more deaths have been confirmed as due to Covid, taking the death toll to 3,564. With 6,108 recoveries, the total number of people cured crossed the 8-lakh mark.