Two-year-old from Meerut UP’s 1st patient with new Covid-19 strain

LUCKNOW: A two-year-old who had returned from London along with her parents on December 14 was found to be UP's first patient with the new mutant Covid-19 strain on Tuesday evening. The girl, who was already in isolation along with her parents at Subharti Medical College will continue to remain in isolation and her health will be monitored throughout.
She is India's seventh case of new strain.Union health ministry on Tuesday morning announced detection of six such cases in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune.
The girl's parents had also tested positive for Covid-19 but the new strain was not found in them. State surveillance officer, UP, Dr Vikasendu Agarwal, confirmed that so far only this girl has tested positive to the new strain. “The girl had travelled with her family to the UK and returned to India on December
14. They tested positive for Covid-19 on December 24 and their samples were sent to Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), New Delhi, for genome sequencing on December 26,” Dr Agarwal told TOI.
Admin to go for round 2 of contact tracing, test
The report confirming the new variant in her arrived a short while ago, Dr Agarwal said.
He added that the Meerut district administration has been instructed to undertake asecond round of contact tracing and testing of any suspects who would have come in contact with the family.
Meerut CMO Dr Akhilesh Mohan said that the girl had been kept at the international isolation centre at Subharti Medical College. The samples of all four persons who returned from the UK to Meerut and tested positive were sent to Delhi for another round of examination.
“We had a list of over 1,650 persons who returned from the UK or via the UK after November 23. Of these, we have been able to screen more than 1,500 persons and only 10 have tested positive for Covid-19 pandemic. The genome sequencing report of five was received today while that of others is awaited.”
Out of 10 who had tested positive, eight are residents of UP while two of them are natives of New Delhi undergoing treatment at Ghaziabad. Besides four cases from Meerut, three were from Gautam Budh Nagar while one from Bareilly.
Principal secretary, health and family welfare, Alok Kumar, urged people not to take the prevention protocol lightly. “Though the number of Covid-19 cases was declining, the new strain is known to be 70% more contagious. However, the prevention for both was the same. Therefore, wearing a mask, following social distancing and washing hands with soap and water or using sanitisers was the safest bet at the moment,” he told reporters.
Experts urged people not to panic as viruses had the tendency to mutate. “Coronavirus is an-RNA based virus which is known to mutate. So, it is behaving the way it should. Now, what people need to keep in mind is that prevention protocol is common and therefore safety from this or any other strain is very much in our own hands,” said Dr Debkishore Gupta, consultant microbiologist and infection control assessor for WHO.