Bengaluru: Mother, 6-year-old daughter test positive for new virus strain; Govt clueless about third infection

A 34-year-old mother and her six-year-old daughter who arrived in Bengaluru on December 19 are carriers of the new variant of Coronavirus. The duo were admitted to Trauma and Emergency Care Centre (TECC) on Victoria Hospital campus on December 22. They were both asymptomatic at the time of admission and have been allotted a single room in TECC.

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Confirming that the mother-daughter duo are two of the three UK returnees who were found to have the new variant of coronavirus, Health and Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar said, "The mother and daughter are two of the three patients with the new variant. I have to find out about the third patient. But none at their home, their driver and those who worked at their house have tested positive."

Till December 28, the state government had tested 1,766 patients who are UK returnees out of whom 27 had tested positive, 1,384 had tested negative and 355 patients' reports were awaited. Sudhakar said as opposed to a previous 14-day isolation period (seven days at home and seven days in the hospital), patients with the new variant of coronavirus will be isolated for 28 days. He also said their co-passengers who flanked them on either side in the flight they travelled in have been traced and tested.

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"Within 48 hours, 1,614 patients and their primary and secondary contacts were traced and tested. We cannot act faster than this. The home department has already assured us that the missing passengers will be traced within 48 hours. They should not be the cause for spreading the virus to many others. We will have to take legal recourse if they they do not submit themselves to RTPCR testing on their own accord at their nearest hospitals," Sudhakar said.