Despite the fears of the mutant rapidly spreading strain of coronavirus entering India to jiggle with the lives of billions of citizens here, 2 UK returnees who were tested positive for covid-19 after landing in Delhi this week escaped their respective isolation centres without informing any official.
While one was tracked to Andhra Pradesh, another managed to reach his native place, Ludhiana.
After being alarmed about the patients and their actions, the officials traced them due to the possibilities of the duo carrying the mutant variant of the already deadly virus that first appeared in the UK.
The first incident was of a 47-year-old woman who arrived in Delhi on Monday and left for Andhra Pradesh soon after her sample test results came in.
The Rapid Antigen Test showed the woman to be positive for covid-19, though couldn’t specify the strain she was infected with, while her son was found to be negative.
The mother-son were tested as part of the mandatory testing regime being carried out at every airport where flights from the UK were scheduled to arrive amid worries of the virus.
Post the positive test results, the woman was shifted to Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital where she was advised to quarantine. Disregarding all advice, the woman along with her 20-year-old son got into a Special Express train that took them to AP’s Rajahmundry.
Upon knowing about her travel diaries, she was picked by the railway authorities, police and health officials directly from the railway station after the train reached at midnight on Wednesday.
“We have carried out rapid antigen and RT-PCR tests for the mother and son. We have also sent samples to the National Institute of Virology at Pune for genome sequencing,” district medical and health officer KVS Gowrishwara Rao said.
The second round of tests again showed the absence of the virus in the son. The woman alleged that she left the isolation centre as she was asymptomatic. She did not come in contact with anyone during her train ride, the AP government said.
The second incident pertains to the case of a man hailing from Punjab who flew down from the UK to Delhi and ran away from an isolation center in the national capital even after being tested positive for covid-19.
On reaching Ludhiana, he admitted himself into a private hospital there but was sent back to Delhi when authorities came to know about it., said Sandeep Kumar, a senior official of the city.
Mr Kumar, Additional Deputy Commissioner said, “We received a call from Delhi that a man, who returned from the UK, escaped isolation and came to Ludhiana and admitted himself at a private hospital. He was tested Positive for COVID-19 but the strain was not clear. We were asked to send him back to Lok Nayak Hospital, and we had sent him back yesterday (Wednesday).”
The commissioner added that efforts were on to find the people who had interacted with the man.
As many countries of the world put suspension orders on all flights arriving in and from the UK, India followed suit and on Monday, announced a ban on all UK flights starting Wednesday till December 31st to curb the spread of the virus strain.
