Coronavirus Outbreak: At least 20 passengers travelling from UK test positive

In recent developments, at least 20 passengers travelling from the UK tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday, December 22.

As per reports, these passengers had arrived at various airports in Delhi, Chennai, Amritsar, Kolkata and Ahmedabad. These passengers include six who landed in Delhi on Monday night, two who arrived in Kolkata on Sunday night, four who arrived in Ahmedabad on Tuesday and one crew member who arrived in Amritsar.

According to sources, all of them had come to India from London on an Air India flight. Moreover, samples of the infected person have been sent to the National Institute of Virology, Pune for testing. The process took many hours, resulting in scenes of chaos and confusion at several airports, including Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata.

The new strain of the coronavirus found in Britain is spreading faster than the previous strain. As a result, a lockdown has been implemented in Britain whereas India has banned all flights to and from Britain from December 23 to December 31.

Moreover, RT-PCR testing of passengers arriving from the UK has been made mandatory to prevent the spread of the contagious disease. However, patients found to be infected with COVID-19 will be placed in institutional quarantine in a separate isolation unit.

Meanwhile, BioNTech Chief Executive Ugur Sahin on December 21 informed that the variant detected in the UK has nine mutations, instead of just one which is usually common. However, he also added that the immune response by the vaccine developed by Pfizer-BioNTech can deal with the new variant.