GURUGRAM: The
health department has started collecting data of those with recent travel history to the United Kingdom, after the discovery of a new variant of the novel coronavirus led to flights to and from that country being halted till December 31.
“We are trying to gather information of travellers coming back from the UK between November 25 and December 23. We urge people to come forward for testing in case they have a recent travel history and to stay in quarantine. We have informed all our health centres to look for people who travelled to that country. Contact tracing of travellers testing positive for Covid-19 needs to be done at the earliest,” said
Gurugram chief medical officer Virender Yadav.
Travellers from the UK will receive daily calls or visits from health officials. They will be asked to monitor all symptoms such as fever, cough and difficulty in breathing for 28 days from the date of arrival. All those who develop symptoms have been advised to isolate at home and inform the district surveillance officer or contact the
Covid helpline, Yadav added.
According to an advisory issued by the Union ministry of health to states, if a traveller tests positive for Covid-19 on arrival in India, a spike gene-based RT-PCR test will be done to look for the new variant of Sars-Cov-2. After the genetic sequencing, the patient will continue to remain in a separate
isolation unit and undergo another test on the 14th day. If found positive, further samples may be taken until two consecutive samples taken 24 hours apart return negative.