Updated: December 24, 2020 7:39:22 am
A senior Punjab health official, who requested anonymity, said there was a clear lapse, as the man had managed to travel despite testing positive.
While the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has published detailed Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) regarding travelers from the UK Following the detection of a new, more transmissible strain of the novel coronavirus there, five Covid-positive flyers from the UK could not be traced after landing at Delhi airport on Tuesday.
While three of them were located Tuesday night and admitted to Lok Nayak hospital in the capital, one made it to Ludhiana while another made it to Andhra Pradesh, before they were returned on Wednesday, The Indian Express.
According to sources, a 46-year-old man from Amritsar’s Pandori village, who was among those who tested positive, managed to leave the Delhi airport without being seen and arrived in Ludhiana, where he checked into a private hospital.
“The patient was transferred back to Delhi today (Wednesday) morning after the authorities wanted him to be sent back. The tension it was carrying is still unknown, ”Ludhiana Additional Deputy Commissioner Sandeep Kumar told The Indian Express.
A senior Punjab health official, who requested anonymity, said there was a clear lapse, as the man had managed to travel despite testing positive. “He is from Amritsar, but he came to Ludhiana because his nephew works in a hospital and decided to enter here. Around 4.30pm on Tuesday, we received a call from the authorities in Delhi that a man from Punjab had escaped… According to protocol, we started looking for him. At around 5.30 pm he arrived at Fortis hospital with his wife, who had accompanied him from the UK. He was isolated and we also isolated two of his closest contacts: his wife and nephew, ”said the official.
According to sources, the Delhi team approached Ludhiana officials to initiate community policing. “However, on Tuesday evening, we received a call again from the office of the special secretary (health) in Delhi, asking us to transfer the patient to Delhi immediately. It was not advisable to do so because the patient was already positive. We refuse to transfer him late at night, ”said the official.
The Ludhiana administration finally agreed to transfer the patient to Delhi on Wednesday. “We were not in favor of returning the patient to Delhi because it could cause the infection to spread … The patient should have been placed in institutional quarantine in Delhi itself. We are also in the process of tracking his other contacts, ”said the Ludhiana official.
Dr Shelly Deora, Medical Superintendent at Fortis Hospital Ludhiana, confirmed that “the patient was transferred back to Delhi on Wednesday morning in an ambulance.”
Delhi health department sources said the patient who went to Andhra Pradesh was tracked down only on Wednesday afternoon, after which they began the process to bring him back. “The department is trying to determine the loophole that led to this,” said a senior Delhi government official.
The Delhi government did not respond to a query from The Indian Express. Delhi’s special secretary for family health and welfare Udit Rai did not respond to calls and messages seeking comment.
Five passengers on Air India’s London-Delhi flight tested positive for Covid-19 upon arrival. They were among 500 passengers who arrived at Delhi airport from the UK on Tuesday.
According to new SOPs issued by the Center on Tuesday, Covid-positive passengers from the UK must be transferred to a separate isolation unit and their samples must be sent for genome sequencing.
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