The Health authorities along with the district administration in Jammu and Kashmir have started looking for 20 returnees from the United Kingdom for their COVID19 sampling.
“We have received a list of 20 residents of J&K from the Government of India who have returned from the United Kingdom after December 7, 2020 back to the country. We have written to the respective district administrations to locate these returnees for their sampling and isolation,” Financial Commissioner, Health and Medical Education Department, Atal Dulloo told Greater Kashmir.
“Their genome testing will be conducted which is available only outside J&K. In this testing, if they are tested positive, they will be isolated in a separate ward and if their test report comes negative, they will be kept under the watch and their high-risk contact will also be tested,” he said.
The Government of India has suspended all flights to and fro United Kingdom till December 31, 2020 after the new rapid-spreading strain of coronavirus was detected in some parts of UK.
According to studies, the mutated coronavirus strain that has been spreading in the UK appears to be more contagious and would likely lead to higher levels of hospitalisations and deaths next year.
According to the study by the Centre for Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the studies said that the variant is 56 percent more transmissible than other strains.
However, the study reveals that there is no clear evidence that it results in more or less severe disease.
The United Kingdowm government had previously said the mutated variant appears to be as much as 70 percent more transmissible than other circulating strains.
“Additionally, it has almost two dozen mutations that may affect proteins made by the coronavirus,” Patrick Vallance, UK’s chief scientific adviser said.
Countries including Australia, Denmark and Singapore have also discovered the strain.
The study said that the vaccine rollouts may need to be accelerated to contain its spread.