Kerala Health Minister KK Shailaja has confirmed that eight people who returned to the state from the UK have tested Covid positive today. She added that their swabs have been sent to Pune for further tests.
The Health Minister stressed that only after the results return from Pune, it can be confirmed if the patients were affected by the new strain of Covid-19, discovered in the UK. "A decision has been taken to mandatorily subject returnees to further tests, she added. "A mild mutation of the virus has been identified in Kerala and research is progressing on this matter," Shailaja said.
The surveillance at the four international airports in the state has been beefed up further.
Meanwhile, Kerala’s share in India’s coronavirus caseload is increasing alarmingly. The state has accorded 23% of the 167,221 new Covid-19 cases that has emerged in the last seven days. Also, India crossed 10 million cases, marking the second country after the US to achieve this unwanted milestone. However, the active cases in India are slowly coming down, but deaths have reached 7% in Kerala, 5% in Uttarakhand, and 4% in Haryana.
Over the last few weeks, the new variant of coronavirus has been spreading rapidly forcing many countries to restrict flights and close borders.
