2 COVID-19 positive patients flew from Chennai to Kolkata in pvt airlines on Monday, Bengal govt furious

Two persons from West Bengal, who tested positive for Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Chennai, took a flight from there in a private airline and landed in Kolkata on Monday morning. Following this, the surveillance procedure for COVID-19 cases across the country by the Union civil aviation ministry is being questioned by the Bengal government.

State transport minister Subhendu Adhikari questioned the Union Civil Aviation ministry on how two persons who had tested positive in Chennai could be allowed to travel. The two young men – one of them 25 years old and the other in his 30s – landed in Kolkata airport and from there went straight to their home district East Midnapore in a COVID-19 designated hospital with their reports in order to get themselves admitted. They went to the district’s Boroma Hospital.

They got themselves tested on June 12 at a laboratory in Chennai and the reports came the following day stating that they had tested positive. However, they boarded a flight on June 14. “How could they skip the surveillance at the airport? Why were they not admitted to a hospital in Chennai immediately?” Adhikari asked. “They came from Chennai in a flight. Imagine the number of people they may have infected during this entire journey!” he said. The minister also questioned the ICMR stating that the lab where they were tested functions under it.

However, Kolkata airport authorities say that they do not have a system of “identifying” people with COVID-19. “If they are asymptomatic, there is no way it can be identified unless the patient declares it,” an official said.

[Cover image @aaikolairport]