2 test positive for Covid-19 in Kolkata after arriving from London
The official said that samples of the infected persons were being analysed by experts to ascertain whether it is the new Covid-19 strain that is believed to spread the infection faster.
Two people have tested positive for Covid-19 in Kolkata after returning from the United Kingdom, a top health official said.
The official said that samples of the infected persons were being analysed by experts to ascertain whether it is the new Covid-19 strain that is believed to spread the infection faster.
“Two people have tested positive for Covid-19 after landing at the NSCBI airport in Kolkata on Sunday. The flight had come from London. They are now admitted in two hospitals. Experts are analysing their samples to see if it is the new strain,” said NS Nigam, state health secretary.
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The British government had warned of a potent new strain of the Covd-19 virus that was ‘out of control’ and imposed a stringent new stay-at-home lockdown from Sunday.
India on Monday announced the suspension of all flights to and from the UK between December 23 and December 31 to prevent the arrival of a new Covid-19 strain believed to spread the infection faster.
According to a senior official of the state health department, there were at least 222 passengers on a flight that arrived in Kolkata from London early on Sunday. At least 25 passengers, who didn’t have RT-PCR test reports with them at the time of landing, were tested in Kolkata. Two of them tested Covid-19 positive and were shifted to two separate hospitals.
“We are trying to scrutinize the contact history of these two people. Efforts are also on to contact all passengers who had come to Kolkata from London in the last seven days and check whether they are following quarantine norms,” said a senior official.
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Union health minister Harsh Vardhan has said that there is no need to panic and the government is well prepared to handle any situation.
One flight arrives from London to Kolkata every Sunday. Even though allegations had surfaced that there were lapses in monitoring the passengers arriving from London, airport authorities said that over the past one and half month RT-PCR tests were being done only for passengers coming from London.
“Those passengers arriving from London, who do not have RT-PCR test reports while landing, are made to undergo RT-PCR test at the Kolkata airport. If anyone tests positive, the infected person is taken by the state government officials to a Covid-19 designated hospital,” said Kaushik Bhattacharya, director of NSCBI airport.
While one of the two passengers, who tested positive, was admitted at the Kolkata Medical College the other was admitted at Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute, both state-run Covid-19 designated hospitals.
Till date West Bengal has reported 5.38 lakh Covid-19 cases out of which 9,401 have died. Kolkata with around 1.20 lakh cases registered the maximum number of patients. Active cases have, however, gone down over the past two months. At present there are around 16,900 active cases compared to more than 36,000 active cases on November 1.
