4 more fliers, contact +ve

Four more fliers and the contact tof an international traveller were found Covidpositive on Thursday, following which all have been institutional quarantined at SevenHills Hospital, Marol. All of them are asymptomatic and the civic body has embarked on their contact tracing. Officials said, so far nine people have tested Covidpositive and their samples have been sent for whole genome sequencing to the civic-run Kasturba hospital.

“We had also conducted Sgene tests for all fliers, six of whom have the S-gene and the reports of two will be out on December 3.

Meanwhile, 485 fliers have undergone RTPCR tests and we are tracking their close and high-risk contacts. However, the whole genome sequence is expected by December 5,” said Additional Municipal Commissioner Suresh Kakani. Meanwhile, as per the state health department, until Thursday morning, 861 international passengers had been RTPCR-tested and three of them had been found positive. Samples of all three patients had been sent for genome sequencing. “Additionally, field surveillance of all international passengers who have arrived since November 1 is underway. A total of 28 samples from both airport and field surveillance have been sent for genomic sequencing. Of these, 12 have been sent to NIV Pune and 16 to the Kasturba Hospital laboratory. Of the 28, 25 are international travellers and three are their close contacts,” said a senior health official.