Officials kept us in dark about new variant: Father of Bengaluru woman who tested positive for new Covid-19 variant

The 65-year-old father of the woman who, along with her child, tested positive for the new variant of SARS-CoV-2, says his daughter was kept in dark about the development.

After learning in the news that his 34-year-old daughter and six-year-old granddaughter were carrying the new variant of the virus, he spoke to her on the phone.

"News channels say she has the new variant of the virus. My daughter told me neither she nor my son-in-law was informed. Shouldn't the treating doctors, patients, and their families be informed first? What sort of protocol is this where the media is informed first," he asked.

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The father said that BBMP officials told them that as per government guidelines, primary and secondary contacts should be kept in institutional quarantine. "My wife and I are primary contacts but we have tested negative twice on an RT-PCR test. Then why shift us? We are both healthy and have no Covid symptoms," he told DH.

They protested because they don't know where they would be taken or what facilities would be available there. "We have our own medical needs. We asked them to seal the building and said we'll abide by the quarantine rules," the father said.

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The man and his wife, 59, have heart disease and diabetes, respectively. They're in isolation in the same house where the mother-daughter duo resided. Their samples were taken on December 22 and 27. "The health inspector said a BBMP volunteer has been stationed there to get us groceries. We will contact him if we need anything."

Two more UK returnees tested positive on Tuesday, raising the tally to 29. So far 1,903 UK returnees have been tested out of whom, 1,599 have tested negative and the reports of 275 are awaited.