56 passengers who arrived from UK to Mangaluru to be tested for Covid-19

With the new strain of coronavirus being reported in UK, the swabs of all 56 passengers from UK who arrived in Dakshina Kannada recently will be collected on Wednesday morning.

All the 56 passengers are in contact with the district health and family welfare department.

Though there are no direct flights from Britain to Mangaluru. All the 56 had arrived at Bengaluru and had travelled from Bengaluru to reach Mangaluru. On December 21, 15 had arrived in Mangaluru, District Health Officer (DHO) Dr Ramachandra Bayari. All those who had arrived from Britain had conducted RT-PCR test at Britain and come with Covid negative report. They were asked to remain in quarantine for 14 days while boarding the flight at the airport in the UK. All are quarantined at home, DHO added.

Three teams were assigned with the task of collecting the swabs of 56 passengers. "The report will reach by evening. In case if they test positive, they will be admitted to hospital for treatment. If they test positive, their samples will be sent to NIMHANS for further test," the DHO added.