No new strain behind spate of deaths at AMU

Aligarh, May 16

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Genome sequencing of Covid-19 samples has not found any new strain behind the infection around the AMU campus, university authorities said on Sunday as another member of their fraternity died.

Professor Abu Qamar (75), the former dean of the Faculty of Medicine in the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital, died of Covid after battling it for nearly three weeks, JNMC Principal Shahid Ali Siddiqui said.

Prof Qamar died two days after AMU’s former proctor Prof Nasim Beg (76) died at a New Delhi hospital where he was shifted after his condition worsened here, his family members said.

At least 38 AMU teachers, including 21 serving ones, have died of Covid or Covid-like symptoms in the last one month, triggering doubts if any new deadly strain of the virus has been in circulation on the AMU campus.

No new strain of coronavirus has been detected in samples sent for genome sequencing to the CSIR in New Delhi, said a senior JNMC official, in a relief to the hospital’s beleaguered staff. — PTI