Telangana detects first COVID positive case from \'at-risk\' country
The 35-year-old female passenger was one among the 206 passengers aboard a British Airways flight from London to Hyderabad
Hyderabad: Telangana on Thursday reported its first Covid-19 positive case from a passenger arriving in the city from an at-risk country. The 35-year-old female passenger, who landed at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in the city, has been placed in a special isolation ward at the Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences at Gachibowli.
She was one among the 206 passengers aboard a British Airways flight from London to Hyderabad.
The woman, a resident of Ranga Reddy district, was asymptomatic, but is being watched closely and all necessary tests are being done, Director of Public Health and Family Welfare Dr G Srinivasa Rao said. He said, as per the current protocol after the discovery of the Omicron variant of the Coronavirus, the sample collected from the woman for the Covid-19 test has been sent for genome sequencing. "It will be a couple of days before the variant which infected her can be determined," Dr Srinivasa Rao said.
He said all the other passengers on the flight are being traced and their health condition will be monitored and each of them will have to undergo mandatory home isolation. After eight days, each passenger from the BA flight will be tested, and if found negative for Covid-19, then will have to continue staying in isolation for another 8 days.
In all, he said, since Wednesday, a total of 325 passengers from UK, and Singapore, two of the 11 Omicron at-risk countries, landed in the city two flights, one of British Airways, and the other Singapore Airlines which carried 119 passengers. Of the 324 who tested negative for Covid-19, 239 were from Telangna, 72 were from Andhra Pradesh, two were from Madhya Pradesh, 10 were from Maharashtra, while one passenger hailed from Rajasthan.
Information about each of these passengers who tested negative has been passed on to the respective states, and for those from Telangana, district health officers have been informed of the particulars of the passengers so their health can be monitored.