Hyderabad: A British national residing in Medchal-Malkajgiri district tested positive for the new strain of coronavirus (B 1.1.7) on Friday. With this, the total number of cases with the new UK strain in Telangana has reached two.
The UK national, who reached Hyderabad a few days ago, had developed Covid symptoms and visited a private hospital for treatment. When the individual tested positive for Covid, the local authorities were alerted who then decided to send the samples to the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) for genome sequencing.
The district health authorities and the surveillance teams have already contacted close contacts of the UK national and have quarantined the person. The health condition of the Briton and other close contacts are stable and are under observation.
On Friday, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said so far three persons had tested positive for the new strain of coronavirus with respect to genome sequencing being carried out by Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB).
Earlier, on December 29, two persons had tested positive for the new strain. Of them, one was from Telangana while another from Andhra Pradesh.