A 48-year-old woman who arrived at the Kolkata airport early on Monday was admitted to the Beleghata Infectious Diseases (ID) Hospital after she tested positive for Covid.
A doctor at the hospital said her condition was stable.
The woman, who holds dual citizenship of Australia and the UK, came to Kolkata for work, said the doctor. An official at the Kolkata airport said that the woman came to Kolkata from Australia via Kuala Lumpur.
“She had tested positive for Covid in Australia. She took the flight after completing the mandatory isolation period advised in that country. But on arrival at the city airport she again tested positive for Covid,” said the doctor.
The updated guidelines for international passengers, issued by the Union health ministry that came into effect on Saturday, said that two per cent of total passengers on a flight shall undergo random testing on arrival at airports in India. The airline carrying the passengers will decide who will undergo the random testing.
“If such travellers’ samples are tested positive, their samples should be further sent for genomic testing at INSACOG laboratory network,” the guidelines mentioned.
“The swab sample was collected at the Kolkata airport and the woman went to a hotel. When she tested positive for Covid she was tracked down, but the hotel refused to let her stay there, which is why we shifted her to the Beleghata ID Hospital,” said a senior official of the health department.
According to the guidelines, international passengers can leave the airport after giving their samples for the Covid test.
Another health department official said that a male passenger, who too came via an international flight on Sunday, has tested positive for Covid.
“The guidelines say that the person will be allowed to leave the airport after giving samples for test. They will be identified and isolated if they test positive for Covid,” said the official. The male passenger has left for Darbhanga and the Bihar government has been informed.
According to the West Bengal health department, three new Covid cases were reported from across the state on Monday and nine cases were reported on Sunday.
A critical care expert said there was no reason for panic. “Let us wait for the genome sequencing report to arrive to see the variant that caused the infection. We should be careful but there is no need to panic,” said Amitabha Saha, head of critical care at AMRI Mukundapur.
