Austrian woman fourth foreign national to test Covid positive in Vrindavan

All four foreign nationals were staying at an ashram in the pilgrim town Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh. They had arrived in India earlier this month

A 41-year-old Austrian woman on Monday became the fourth foreign national to test positive for Covid in the pilgrim town Vrindavan in Mathura district of western Uttar Pradesh since Friday (November 26), a health official said.

All four samples have been sent for genome sequencing to labs in Lucknow. (REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE )

The woman was residing at the same ashram in Vrindavan where the three other foreign nationals tested positive for Covid. The other three are nationals of Lithuania, Spain and Switzerland. Vrindavan, a religious town 150 kilometres from Delhi, attracts many foreign devotees.

With the threat of new variant Omicron looming large, all four samples have been sent for genome sequencing to labs in Lucknow.

Omicron (B.1.1.529) SARS-CoV-2 variant has been designated a “variant of concern” by World Health Organisation (WHO) after being traced in South Africa, Botswana and Hong Kong, besides other nations.

“The woman tourist arrived in India on November 15 and was staying at Girdhar Dham, Sheetal Chayya Mandir, in Vrindavan as a Krishna devotee. The ashram has been declared a containment zone and samples of the inmates have been sent for testing,” said Dr Bhoodev, the deputy chief medical officer and in-charge of the Covid control centre in Mathura.

“The woman, aged 41, is from Austria and had symptoms of Covid. All four foreigners testing positive for Covid are placed under treatment in isolation,” he said.

“The health department is taking no chances and devotees arriving from foreign nations are subjected to sample testing. Samples of 30 foreign devotees at ISKCON temple in Vrindavan were also sent for testing,” Dr Bhoodev stated.

All the four foreign nationals who tested positive in Vrindavan arrived in India on tourist visas in mid-November.

A woman, aged 30, from Lithuania was the first to be found infected with Covid there on Friday (November 26). A Spanish and Swiss national each also tested positive thereafter. Mathura district now has four active cases of Covid and all are foreign nationals from Europe.

On November 20, a footwear manufacturer from Agra tested positive after returning from Poland. The samples of the footwear manufacturer have been sent to Lucknow for genome sequencing and the reports are awaited.

The first Covid positive case in Uttar Pradesh had been reported from Agra on March 2, 2020. That patient had returned from Italy.