A 28-year-old youth who returned from Scotland to Indore via Delhi has tested COVID-19 positive, giving a scare to the health authorities and people.
The youth has been put under special isolation at the super specialty hospital of the Mahatma Gandhi Medical College, Indore and his sample is to be sent out to Delhi soon to check upon the COVID-19 strain variant, Dr Amit Malakar, COVID-19 nodal officer of Indore confirmed to THE WEEK.
Following reports of the emergence of a new more contagious COVID-19 strain in the United Kingdom (UK), India has stopped flights to and from the country till the year end. Meanwhile, the passengers who returned to India recently from the UK are being tracked and sampled.
“We have received a list of 125 passengers who returned to Indore from the UK just before the flights were stopped on December 22. Of these, 17 have moved forward to other districts or states and coordination is being done with authorities there. Meanwhile, we have started sampling the remaining 108 passengers and 68 were completed till Thursday night and the process is continuing. One passenger, who returned from Scotland, tested positive in the report received late on Thursday night. He has been isolated and protocols are being followed,” Dr Malakar said.
Meanwhile, the family members and other contacts of the positive youth have also been quarantined and are under watch.
Indore has been the hub of COVID-19 pandemic in Madhya Pradesh and by Thursday evening, the district had reported 53,011 positive cases of which 351 positive were reported during preceding 24 hours. The district, which has reported a total 851 deaths till now, alone is reporting more positive cases than many states during the recent past.
As for Madhya Pradesh overall, 2,35,369 positive cases had been reported till Thursday evening, of which 1038 were reported in the preceding 24 hours. The death toll in the state stands at 3524.
Capital Bhopal has also been reporting a high number of positive cases during the past month. The total positive in the district stood at 37,992 till Thursday evening (218 cases in preceding 24 hours) and the death toll was 563.
