DIBRUGARH:

Four persons, who had recently returned from other states, were found to be positive with an Indian double mutant strain of the COVID-19 at Dibrugarh Airport on Thursday.

Dibrugarh district Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme officer, Dr Nabojyoti Gogoi, informed that a random sampling of the returnees was done at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Lahowal and the reports had detected the Indian double mutant strain of Covid-19 in them.

“It is infectious than the earlier one. A high-level meeting was held on Thursday after the detection of the double mutant Covid-19. We will be very strict with those who are coming from outside through the airways. Seven days home quarantine should be followed by the passengers who are coming from outside,” Gogoi said.

“Recent samples from Dibrugarh Airport are positive for B.1.617 strain or the Indian double mutant (L452R and E484Q) strain of SARS-CoV-2. We need to be very very careful,” Assam Health Himanta Biswa Sarma tweeted.

The B.1.617 or ‘double mutant’ Indian variant carries two mutations, including the L452R and E484Q, which have been seen separately earlier in other variants but never together in one variant.

On Thursday, a total of 2926 people were tested in Dibrugarh, of which 122 had tested COVID-19 positive.

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