Travellers From Dubai, UK Contributed Maximum to COVID-19 Spread in India

Travellers From Dubai, UK Contributed Maximum to COVID-19 Spread in India

Much was blame was laid at the doorstep of the Tablighi Jamaat but a study by IIT Mandi has found that travellers from Dubai and the UK were the primary sources of COVID-19 import into India.

While the research, which has been published in the Journal of Travel Medicine, has found that the international travel was the main channel through which COVID-19 came to India, the main routes were from Dubai and the UK.

The study also found that infected cases from Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Andhra Pradesh played a lesser role in spreading the disease outside their communities, while those from Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Kerala, Jammu & Kashmir, and Karnataka played a significant role in local transmission. Some of them caused interstate transfer too.

The study tracked the diffusion of the coronavirus from the global to national level and identified a few superspreaders who played a central role in the transmission of the disease in India. According to Sarita Azad, an assistant professor at IIT Mandi, COVID-19 spread in phase one (Jan-April), traced by the travel history of patients, was mostly local transmission.

"The research team used the travel history of infected patients from January to April as the primary data source and a social network was created depicting the spread in the early phase of the pandemic. The research found that the maximum numbers of connections were established from Dubai (144) and the UK (64)," she added.PTI