VIJAYAWADA: The number of returnees from the United Kingdom who tested positive for Covid-19, increased to 11 on Monday from six on Sunday. Similarly, the number of contacts of UK returnees who contracted the virus, also rose to 12 from 4. According to the Medical and Health Department, 147 more people returned to the State from the UK, taking the total to 1,363. Of the total, 1,324 UK returnees have been shifted to quarantine centres and 17 are yet to be traced.
Of the total 11 UK returnees who tested positive for the virus, four are from Guntur, three from Krishna, two from East Godavari, one each from Anantapur and Nellore. Of those who contracted the virus, eight are from Guntur, three from East Godavri and one from Nellore. No sample reports to confirm whether the people have tested positive for the new strain of coronavirus or not, have been received by the State from the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, and the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad.
The reports of the samples of new Covid cases sent to the NIV and the CCMB last week, are expected to come in two to three days, Meanwhile, the total number of contacts of UK returnees, traced so far has increased to 5,784 on Monday from 3,282 on Sunday. “We are following the regular pattern of contact tracing. We are taking the details of all the places visited by the UK returnees after they reached their hometowns to trace their contacts,” said an official.