20 UK returnees traced in Bhubaneswar, two test Covid-19 positive

BHUBANESWAR: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has traced 20 people who returned from the UK to Bhubaneswar in the last 14 days. Two of them tested Covid-19 positive.
After a new strain of the virus was detected in the UK, the state government brought out a new standard operating procedure (SOP) to screen and monitor people returning from England. A testing kiosk for RT-PCR test has been opened at the Biju Patnaik International Airport. Those with symptoms will be tested.
Since the 20 returnees were identified after they went to their homes and not at the airport, tests were not conducted at the kiosk. Among the two positive cases are a 34-year old man and a four-year-old girl. The BMCs contract tracing led to their identification. BMC commissioner Prem Chandra Chaudhury said the rest 18 people have been advised home isolation and are being monitored by the rapid response team. In case any of the returnees develops symptoms at a later stage, they will be tested. “The samples of two positive ones have been sent to Pune for genome sequencing to ascertain the strain,” he told

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So far, the airport authorities haven’t come across any UK returnee at the airport after the government’s SOP came into enforcement. However, the international flights are yet to operate from here.
But those coming en route Delhi or Kolkata to Bhubaneswar in domestic flights will be screened, airport sources said.
Neither the family members of the 34-year old Covid positive man nor the parents of the four-year-old girl have been found to be Covid positive. On Saturday, the city reported 20 fresh cases against 43 new recoveries.
Out of the 20 cases, three were found in home quarantine and rest are local contacts. With 30,954 recoveries so far and 237 deaths, the city now has 327 active cases. The total count jumped to 31,539. The test positivity rate remains below two per cent.
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