UK-returned Indore man first to test positive for new Covid-19 strain in MP

BHOPAL: A young man in Indore has become the first Madhya Pradesh resident to have tested positive for the new coronavirus strain, first reported in the UK. 

Confirming the development, highly-placed sources at the state health department in Bhopal said on Friday that out of the two samples sent from Indore to the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Delhi, one sample has been found positive for the new strain of COVID-19.

The intimation about the positive report was made by NCDC Delhi to the MP Health Department on Thursday evening, following which the Indore district administration has been alerted to act as per existing safety guidelines and SOP pertaining to the new strain. 

According to informed official sources in Indore, the young man had returned home from the UK in the first week of last December. 

Much to the surprise of the health department, he had tested COVID-19 positive around a fortnight after his return from the UK. His family members, however, had tested negative.

"Being asymptomatic, he was put under home isolation for 14 days after testing positive and one of his sample reports tested negative after completion of home isolation period on Thursday" a health department source in Indore said.

As the SOP pertaining to the new COVID-19 strain requires two consecutive negative test results within 24 hours to release a patient, the health department is awaiting his second test report of samples taken in the last 24 hours. "His first test report has come negative on Thursday, we're now awaiting his second test report as per the SOPs, " a health department official said. 

So far, 332 UK returnees in MP have been traced and tested for the virus. Out of them, five, including two from Indore, have tested positive.
 
Indore, which is the most populated city of MP, has so far reported maximum of 56,254 COVID-19 positive cases and 902 deaths. Around 53,000 patients have so far recovered.