E-Paper
Two paramilitary personnel test Covid +ve at Lucknow’s KGMU
LUCKNOW Samples of two paramilitary personnel, who returned to Uttar Pradesh, tested positive for Covid at the King George’s Medical University (KGMU), after which authorities decided to send their samples for genome sequencing on Wednesday
LUCKNOW Samples of two paramilitary personnel, who returned to Uttar Pradesh, tested positive for Covid at the King George’s Medical University (KGMU), after which authorities decided to send their samples for genome sequencing on Wednesday.
One of them came back from Kerala and the other from Assam after their leave got over. As per protocol, their samples were sent for lab test. The two were asymptomatic and sent back to their barrack in Bijnore.
The contact tracing drive was initiated by the health department and all the people who came in contact with these security personnel were screened and their samples were taken. “We are testing those who came in contact with the two security personnel via both antigen and RT-PCR method,” said Dr Milind Vardhan, deputy chief medical officer, Lucknow.
“For now they are staying in isolation in camp,” said Dr Vardhan. Genome sequencing will also be done by the department of microbiology at the KGMU.
“Contact tracing is a process to find out if the Covid infection has been passed on to anyone who met them during travel or even after they came to Lucknow. If anyone else tests positive, they will also be treated,” said Dr Abhishek Shukla, secretary general, Association of International Doctors.
By evening, 115 samples of the people on the contact list of both the security personnel were taken for lab test. Their antigen test result came negative while the RT-PCR sample report will come in a day.
Earlier, a traveller from the US and another other from Dubai had tested positive. Their samples were also sent for genome sequencing and the report was awaited.
Till now, Lucknow had reported over 2.38 lakh cases of Covid and 2,651 deaths while 14 active cases were under treatment at present.
Meanwhile, Lucknow crossed a significant milestone of testing over 5 million samples for the coronavirus disease. Half of these were tested via RT-PCR method and the remaining through antigen, TrueNat and CB Naat tests.
In all, 5189309 samples were tested in Lucknow since the pandemic began. These included 2414737 RT-PCR samples, 2606191 antigen, 141276 TrueNat and 27105 CB Naat. “Lucknow has tested maximum samples among districts in the state,” said Yogesh raghuvanshi, spokesperson of the office of chief medical officer of Lucknow. In UP, 75539756 Covid samples have been tested till now.
