Health Minister K Sudhakar told reporters that the Health Department had so far conducted tests on 1,638 people out of the 2,500 passengers till December 22.
Karnataka Health Minister K Sudhakar on Saturday said that 14 of the 2,500 passengers who returned from the UK since November 25 had tested coronavirus positive and their samples were sent for genome sequencing tests to find if anyone was infected with a mutant strain. Sudhakar told reporters that the Health Department had so far conducted tests on 1,638 of the 2,500 passengers till December 22. "Of the 1,638, 14 were positive. Their samples have been sent to the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences (NIMHANS) for genome sequencing test. NIMHANS is one of the 10 institutes selected by the Health Ministry to conduct these tests. Along with Nimhans, the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) at Bengaluru can also carry out the tests," he explained. Sudhakar said that genome sequencing was a time-consuming process which takes at least three to four days. "The new strain of the virus found in the UK has 14 mutations, so genome sequencing tests are taking some time," he said. According to the Minister, the state will not have direct access to these reports. "NIMHANS or NCBS is supposed to send the reports to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) which, in turn, will disclose the results to the respective states," he said. He added that the Union government has barred the state government from sharing any details about the new variants of coronavirus. The Minister clarified that at this stage, the state government has neither directed nor helped any VIP to secure 'Covaxin,' the COVID-19 vaccine being developed in India. "Covaxin is still in the trial stage. Inaugurating the third round of trials of this vaccine, I had appealed to frontline health workers to get shots for their own safety," he said. The Karnataka Health Department traced and tested UK returnees who arrived in India on December 20 and 21. In addition, the health department is also testing those returning from the UK, who arrived after November 25, and has asked them to isolate themselves.
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