Eleven UK arrivals in Delhi found COVID-19 positive, health secy reviews status; Karnataka announces night curfew

Indian municipal workers in personal protective equipment (PPE) guide passengers arriving from United Kingdom, at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai, AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool

Ahead of the festive season, Karnataka on Wednesday became the second state after Maharashtra to announce night curfew amid concerns over a new mutation of the coronavirus which is spreading in the UK.

Several states stepped up contact-tracing and testing of those who have recently come from the UK. A few states also announced restrictions on gatherings for Christmas and New Year while Rajasthan announced a night curfew in cities on 31 December.

According to a NDTV report, at least 22 persons who arrived in India from the UK have tested positive over the past few days. So far, 11 passengers who came from or via the UK have tested positive in Delhi, eight have been found COVID-19 positive in Amritsar, two in Kolkata and one in Chennai, the report quoted authorities as saying.

The government had on Monday directed that all passengers coming from the UK on arrival at Indian airports should be tested. It also issued a stringent set of SOPs mandating RT-PCR tests at airports for each traveller from the country and isolation in a separate unit of an institutional facility for positive cases.

Additionally, India has now suspended all passenger flights connecting the UK from Wednesday till 31 December or till further orders.

India’s caseload increases

India’s COVID-19 caseload on Wednesday rose to 1,00,99,066 with 23,950 new infections being reported in a day, while the number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 96,63,382, according to the Union health ministry. The toll increased to 1,46,444 with 333 new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed.

The national recovery rate rose to 95.