Six returnees from the UK to Andhra Pradesh and four of their contacts have so far tested positive for Covid-19, health officials said on Sunday.
In all 1,216 people from the UK returned to Andhra Pradesh and of them, 1,187 were traced. Efforts were on to trace the remaining 29.
A total of 1,162 returnees were in quarantine. Six of the returnees found infected by a coronavirus. They include two from the Guntur district and one each from East Godavari, Krishna, Anantapur, and Nellore districts.
Officials also traced 3,282 contacts of UK returnees and sent their samples for testing. Four of the contacts have tested positive. While three are from the Guntur district, one person is from Nellore.
The samples of those who tested positive were sent to the National Institute of Virology, Pune, and Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) for genome sequencing to find out if they are infected by the new strain of the virus found in the UK. “We have not yet received the reports,” said an official.
Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh Sunday reported 349 new Covid cases, pushing the state’s tally to 8,81,061.
One person succumbed to the virus during the last 24 hours. With this, the death toll rose to 7,094.
According to the state command control room, 422 people recovered from the virus during the last 24 hours ending 10 a.m. on Sunday. The cumulative recoveries mounted to 8,70,342.
The number of active cases dropped further to 3,625.
During the last 24 hours, 46,386 tests were conducted. With this, the total number of tests conducted so far rose to 1,16,20,503. Tests per million ratios in the state increased to 2,17,612