NAGPUR: A 36-year-old man from Narendra Nagar, who returned from the United Kingdom recently, tested positive for Covid on Saturday. He had submitted his swab samples on Friday. This took the total number of suspected patients of the new variant of the coronavirus — believed to be from the UK — to four in city.
Additional municipal commissioner Sanjay Nipane and medical officer Dr Sanjay Chilkar from the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) told TOI that the man is asymptomatic and admitted in a special ward at the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH). “Three persons including the positive man, his brother and friend returned to city from UK on November 28,” they informed.
The Bureau of Immigration on Wednesday had sent a list of 78 people who returned from Europe, Middle East and South Africa between November 25 and December 23. NMC found that 39 were residents of the city while the others had Nagpur addresses in their passport but are residing in other cities of state. Another 70 names have been sent by the bureau.
As per an NMC official, the 36-year-old’s brother did not get tested as he said he was RT-PCR negative a few days after returning to the city. “The friend’s test was negative. We will ask the brother to give his samples again,” the official said.
In the last two days, three flyers of UK tested positive. Among them are a man from Nandanwan and a mother-daughter duo from Trimurti Nagar. All three are admitted to the GMCH’s special ward. Their samples have been sent to National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune for genome sequencing on Friday and Saturday by the IGGMCH and GMCH, respectively. The sample of the 36-year-old too was sent on Saturday.
On the insistence of NMC, the parents of the 36-year-old too got RT-PCR tested on Saturday and the results are expected on Sunday.
Dr Chilkar said that 35 of the 39 passengers have tested negative. While the earlier three flyers tested positive within the incubation period of 14 days, the 36-year-old’s sample tested positive on the 27th day of arrival in city.
According to Dr Chilkar, the government is considering 28 days as incubation period for the new variant of coronavirus. “Therefore, it is sending list of flyers who returned between November 25 and December 23,” he said.
Dr Chilkar added the Bureau of Immigration has sent a second list of 120 flyers on Saturday. “We have started to check the names and contact them. There are around 70 new names. All will be tested soon,” he said.
Sources from the GMCH and IGGMCH said results of swab samples of the first positive patient (Nandanwan youth) are expected in the next three days. “It takes around four days to receive results from NIV,” they said.
The city has got only one new air passenger from Europe. A man returned from France on Thursday and was sent to an institutional quarantine centre. His samples will be tested in 5-7 days.