A woman from Andhra Pradesh, who landed in Delhi from the UK, set alarm bells ringing after she tested positive for Covid-19 and disappeared from the airport without informing anyone.
It is not clear if the woman has tested positive for the old strain or its new variant, but officials say they can’t afford to take chances.
According to a report in Times of India, the woman is from Rajahmundry and she returned to India on December 21.
According to the fresh SOP, RT-PCR tests will be made mandatory on arrival and separate isolation centers will be set up for those who test positive for the new coronavirus strain.
In the interim, it has been decided that passengers arriving from the UK on all international flights (flights in transit) should be subjected to mandatory RT PCR tests on arrival.
In the case of a positive sample, it is recommended that spike gene-based RT-PCR test should also be performed by an appropriate laboratory. Further, passengers testing positive will be sent to the institutional isolation facility by respective state authorities.
Likewise, officials took the swab samples of the Andhra woman at Indira Gandhi International airport on December 21. Before her result could come in, she left the airport and boarded the New Delhi-Visakhapatnam special train. She then switched off her mobile, apparently after she learned that police had contacted her family members.
AP health officials, who could not contact the woman on her mobile, lodged a complaint with Rajahmundry police on Wednesday after her family told them that she had boarded a train.
Officials told TOI that the woman’s behavior was dangerous as she could come in contact with numerous people in the nearly 1,800-km journey, many of whom will be difficult to trace.
The police and revenue officials swung into action and contacted the family of the woman passenger. The family said the woman would reach Rajahmundry by the early hours of Thursday. Railway officials to have been informed.
The train has stoppages in Telangana and in Vijayawada. Officials said that the passengers in the compartment the woman is traveling will be subjected to Covid-19 tests. They are likely to be deboarded at Rajahmundry. However, they are tight-lipped about passengers who would get down at Vijayawada and places in Telangana.
The officials told the daily the woman’s behavior was dangerous as she could come in contact with numerous people in her nearly 1,800 km journey. The family told the police the woman would reach Rajahmundry by the early hours of Thursday. Railway officials have been informed.