Karnataka says 3 UK returnees with new Covid-19 strain and their contacts are isolated

Bengaluru: Karnataka health department has isolated all three persons from the state who found Covid-19 positive with the new UK variant genome and has traced and tested their contacts, health minister K Sudhakar said on Tuesday.

“Twenty six of 1,614 UK returnees are Covid positive of which the virus strain of three people matches with the UK variant. They are receiving treatment at a government hospital and we have traced and tested all their primary and secondary contacts. We have acted swiftly,” he said.

The union health ministry said a total of six samples of UK returnees have tested positive for the Britain variant of which three were from Bengaluru, two were tested in Hyderabad and one person in Pune.


The Karnataka government will isolate all Covid positive persons among UK returnees for 28 days as per the Centre’s guidelines. “Covid protocol for the previous strain was 14 days of isolation, but with the revised guidelines in place, we are isolating all positive persons for four weeks,” the minister said.

The government is also trying to reach out to co-passengers who flew down with these 26 UK returnees.

Meanwhile, the health authorities have sought the help of police to trace nearly 570 passengers from the UK who have remained untraceable.