BENGALURU: All 72 contacts of 7 UK returnees in Karnataka who had contracted the UK strain of SARS-CoV-2 have tested negative for Covid-19.Of the 72 contacts, 20 are primary contacts and the rest are secondary contacts, said Dr V Ravi, retired professor of neurovirology at NIMHANS and nodal officer for genetic confirmation of SARS-CoV-2.
Addressing the media on Thursday, Dr Ravi said all of them had tested negative on an RT-PCR test. However, he cautioned, that “a negative test did not mean that one could derive the conclusion that the UK strain had lower transmission. Studies show that it has high transmission. However, the government’s intervention has helped in preventing spread of the virus. The contacts were immediately traced and isolated and this helped in many people testing negative.”
While much is not known about the new UK variant, chances of people who have already recovered from Covid-19 being reinfected with this strain are lower than 5%, Dr Ravi said.He said that the vaccines would be effective against the new strain. “Currently, some companies are modifying their vaccines for the UK strain. However, the available vaccines will be effective on the UK variant.
Those who get vaccinated will be safe from Covid for one or two years. However, genomic sequencing must be done on a regular basis. This is essential to monitor and detect the emergence of new variants,” he said.He said that a second wave could be expected to occur around six months after the first wave. “But we will still need to follow Covid norms, to avoid getting infected. The transmission of the UK variant will also slow down if we follow such practises...,” Dr Ravi said.
24 untraceable UK returnees found in Karnataka
Twenty-four of the 199 UK returnees who could not be traced by state’s Covid machinery, were found by the Home Department, Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar said on Thursday. The rest will be found by the end of the day. “Nearly 80 of the people who came to India from the UK are not Indian citizens, so we had trouble tracking them. Thirty UK returnees and four of their contacts have tested positive so far, of which only seven have the UK strain. They are isolated in hospital and are stable without any serious issues,” he said. He said the government would not seal any more apartments as had been done during the lockdown when positive cases were found.