China detects 18 cases of double mutant variant from India

New Delhi, May 06: China confirmed at least 18 case of the double mutant COVID-19 variant circulating in India, including in three Chinese nationals who had worked near Delhi and returned to China last month.

The Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention told the state media that more COVID-19 cases imported from India were feared to be found in China. However they are unlikely to trigger cluster infections because of the country's strict entry and screening rules.

Three Chinese nationals tested positive after they returned to the southwest Chinese city of Chongqing after returning from India via Kathmandu, the CDC weekly said. They were working at a mobile phone company in Noida and travelled to Delhi by car on April 19 before flying to Nepal with protective clothes, N95 respirators, goggles and gloves later that day.

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"They stayed in a hotel in Nepal for two days and then flew to southwest China's Chongqing on April 21 and immediately tested positive for Covid-19 after landing in Chongqing," the weekly reported.

Three returning citizens suspected of contracting a virus variant in India said a Newsweek report on china's Weibo microblogging service. "One asymptomatic case involved an Indian man who landed in Shanghai from Niger via Paris, and he then went to Zhejiang's Yiwu on April 30 after quarantine, and tested positive on Saturday," the Global Times reported.