The Health Department stated in a press release on Friday that the total number of persons who returned from the United Kingdom in the last one month stands at 1,148, of whom 1,040 have been traced.
Of those yet to be found, 18 persons are from other States and 16 have invalid addresses. A total of 982 persons were placed in quarantine.
Four persons were found positive among them and their fresh samples were sent to the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad and the National Institute of Virology at Pune to ascertain whether the infection is due to the new strain of coronavirus. The results of these tests will be known in three days.
Two deaths
The State registered 354 new COVID positive cases and two deaths (Krishna and Guntur districts) in the last 24 hours ending on Friday morning.
Chittoor district has the highest number of cases during the period at 81 and Vizianagaram the lowest at six. The total positive cases, tests per million and positivity rate are 8,80,430, 2,15,940 and 7.64 respectively.
Trial run
Meanwhile, arrangements have been made for a trial run of the COVID vaccine administration process at five locations in Krishna district on December 28 to check if the web-based software is working properly, as per the Central government’s instructions.