The first case of a person infected with the South African variant of the novel coronavirus in Karnataka has come to light. “He is a 53-year-old-man who has recently returned from Dubai and was tested for the virus upon landing at the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru,” District Health Officer Dr Nagaraj Naik told TNM.
He said, following standard protocol, all passengers are coming from the UK and Middle East being screened for the virus and newer strains. As reported widely, the South African and the UK variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus are found to be more infectious than previously detected strains. Till date, the state has 29 cases of persons infected with the UK variant.
He added, “The patient has remained asymptomatic and was advised home quarantine after he returned. While he was advised quarantine we came to know that he has some limited movements within Shivamogga town. We have done necessary contact tracing and have admitted him in an isolation facility in our district hospital after the genome sequencing test came yesterday.”
The officer said a total nine primary contacts including his wife and son have been traced and all of them have tested negative for the virus. Further, 30 secondary contacts have also been identified and their results are awaited. He suggested that since the person tested positive 19 days ago, there seems to be no significant increase in cases in the community suggesting that there has been not much spillage of the infection.
“But we are doing increased testing in the area to ascertain that there are no spillages,” the DHO further added.
Meanwhile, 783 new COVID-19 cases were detected in the state on Thursday in line with the trend of the past 10 days of an increase in numbers. Pointing to the steep rise in coronavirus cases in neighbouring Maharashtra, Karnataka Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar on Thursday appealed to the people to strictly follow COVID-19 protocol such as wearing face masks and social distancing.