PUNE: A man who had returned here from the UK in the second week of December has been found to have tested positive for coronavirus, a health official said on Friday.
The person's swab samples will be sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV) to check if he has been infected by the new strain of virus found in the UK, said Dr Sanjiv Waware, Assistant Chief Health Officer, Pune Municipal Corporation.
The man was one of the 544 persons -- including 300 from Pune city -- who had returned to Pune district recently as per a list provided by the Maharashtra government, he said.
"This man returned to Pune on December 13 and tested positive on December 17. We will be sending his swab samples to NIV for genome sequencing to check if the virus is the same as the new strain," said Dr Waware.
The man is asymptomatic and is currently in home isolation, he said.
After a new variant of coronavirus was detected in the UK, the Union government had asked for tracing of passengers who arrived in India from the UK between November 25 and December 23.