A government-mandated study has found no traces of novel coronavirus in Ganga waters after dead bodied were fished out from the river in some districts of UP and Bihar during the peak of the second wave, PTI has reported quoting sources.
The study was conducted by the National Mission for Clean Ganga under the Jal Shakti Ministry in collaboration with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.
The study was conducted in two phases with the samples being taken from Kannauj, Unnao, Kanpur, Hamirpur, Allahabad, Varanasi, Balia, Buxar, Ghazipur, Patna and Chhapra.
“None of the samples collected had traces of SARS-CoV2,” official sources told PTI.
The virological study extracted the RNA of the viruses from the water samples to conduct an RT-PCR test to determine the viral load in the water body.
There were fears that bodies, possibly of Covid victims, floating in the Ganga might have infected the water.