Ten more UK returnees tested positive for COVID-19 in Karnataka on Friday. With this, a total of 14 persons who returned to the State from the UK between December 1 and 22 have tested positive for COVID-19. The 14 samples are now undergoing genome sequencing at NIMHANS.
According to the State’s media bulletin, as many as 1,419 of the 2,127 UK returnees have been tested so far. Of the 1,419 tested, 744 have tested negative and reports of 661 are awaited. Sources said the remaining persons have either not been traced or are not available for tests.
“If any of those who are yet to be tested are carriers of the mutant variant of SARS-CoV-2 strain, there is a risk of the infection spreading as the new strain is highly infectious,” sources said.
Official sources said they were finding it difficult to trace and convince the UK returnees to get tested. “Although we are able to contact them, several people who had returned before the Centre’s regulations on flights and quarantine were imposed, have told us they are out of station or are immediately not available for tests. Such people are also arguing that they had landed in the first week of December or even before that, and are doing well and, hence, there is no need to get tested,” sources said.
New cases
Meanwhile, Karnataka on Friday reported 1,005 new cases of COVID-19, taking the total number of cases to 9,14,488. With five deaths, the toll rose to 12,044. This is apart from 19 deaths of patients due to non-COVID-19 reasons.
As many as 1,102 persons were discharged on Friday, taking the total number of recoveries to 8,88,917. Of the remaining 13,508 active patients, 208 were being monitored in ICUs. While the positivity rate for the day stood at 1.01%, the Case Fatality Rate (CFR) touched 0.49%.
Bengaluru Urban reported 578 cases, taking its tally to 3,85,586. With four deaths coming from Bengaluru, the toll in this district rose to 4,287.
Active cases in Bengaluru reduced to 8,819. As many as 98,568 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours, including 89,771 RT-PCR tests. With this, the total tests rose to 1,35,14,362.
