VIJAYAWADA/VISAKHAPATNAM: A total of 1,148 people from the United Kingdom have returned to Andhra Pradesh in the last one month and 1,040 of them have been traced so far and efforts are on to trace the remaining 90.
In a press release on Friday, Health Commissioner Katamaneni Bhaskar said 18 of the UK returnees are from other States and 16 of them do not have valid address. In all, 982 of the total 1,040 traced UK returnees have been shifted to quarantine centres and four of them have tested positive for Covid-19.
“The fresh samples of the four Covid cases have been sent to the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) and National Institute of Virology to get confirmation that if they have tested positive for the new strain of coronavirus. It will take three days to get the results,” the Health Commissioner said, adding that there is need to panic.
Meanwhile, the official machinery of Visakhapatnam initiated steps to trace and isolate the 217 people who returned to the district from the UK in the last four weeks.
District Medical and Health Officer P Suryanarayana told TNIE that a 15-member surveillance team is tracing the UK returnees and almost all of them have been traced. It has been more than 14 days since the arrival of most of them from the UK. However, they have been advised to be in home isolation for 14 more days. One person who returned to Dumbriguda in Vizag Agency from the UK, is yet to be traced.
The UK returnee has reportedly gone to S Kota in Vizianagaram district. Vizianagaram district officials have been asked to track the UK returnee, the DM&HO said.
Teams comprising ANMs and Asha workers are visiting all UK returnees in the district to collect samples from them for RT PCR test. The Covid tests for the UK returnees will be completed by Saturday. If anyone tested positive, the samples will be sent to the National Institute of Virology for confirmation of new strain of coronavirus, the DM&HO added.
Eight passengers who travelled with a woman returned from the UK up to Rajamahendravaram in AP Express, were traced in Visakhapatnam. All of them were shifted to KGH, where they tested negative, said Andhra Medical College principal PV Sudhakar.