71 UK-returnees go untraceable in Patna

Mounting pressure on Bihar State government and the state health department, 71 of 96 returnees who landed in Bihar from England are believed to be untraceable and incommunicado. The new strain of coronavirus which was first detected in Britain is 70 per cent more destructive than the existing virus.

Patna:71 out of 96 people who arrived in Patna from England are reportedly missing from their homes while a team of healthcare professionals are constantly engaged in looking for them.

Of the returnees, the samples of only 25 people were taken on Wednesday. Two out of these 25 samples reported negative for COVID-19.

"Between 23 November and 21 December, we have been given a list of 96 people with their address, phone number etc. While the Phone number is not clear in many places, some people are not receiving calls. When the officials tried visiting the address of the people who had returned from Britain, it was found that people have gone elsewhere. However, efforts are being made to send information continuously to those people.” says Vibha Kumari Singh, Patna Civil Surgeon

New strain, more contagious

• Quickly infects people.
• 70 per cent more contagious.
• New strain of virus spreads very fast.
• Mutations have seen changes in those parts of the virus, which affect the human cells.
• Some mutations increase the virus's ability to infect human cells.

The Union government has banned all inbound flights from Britain between December 23 and December 31. RT-PCR test of people coming back from the UK is being done, after which the genome sequencing of their sample is also being conducted.

The new strain of coronavirus which was first detected in Britain is 70 per cent more destructive than the existing virus.