34 Aligarh Muslim University Teachers Die Of Covid In 18 Days, Institute Fears New Covid Strain

Thirty-four current and former faculty members of Aligarh Muslim University have died due to Covid-19 and its related symptoms in the last 18 days, The Tribune has reported.

The deaths include 16 current faculty members of the University.

The Institute has now sent samples from its Covid-19 testing laboratory to CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology for viral genome sequencing, as it suspects a new Covid-19 varaint.

Vice-Chancellor Tariq Mansoor in a letter has stated that the deceased faculty members, retired teachers and employees used to live on or near the campus as he went on to claim that a viral variant might be circulating in Aligarh's Civil Lines area.

"This is giving rise to a suspicion that a particular viral variant may be circulating in the Civil Lines area of Aligarh in which AMU and many adjoining localities are situated...".

The Vice Chancellor has called for an analysis of the Covid-19 samples by ICMR for possible variants to enable them to consider other epidemiological links and measures to control the spread.

"I request you to instruct the concerned section/department of the ICMR to perform analysis of Covid-19 samples sent from our lab to investigate for any particular viral variants of Covid-19 virus circulating in Aligarh, which may be giving rise to greater severity of the disease, so that we may consider other epidemiological links and measures to control the same as per advice and recommendations", the letter adds.