Passengers on board with positive COVID19 patient will be probed: Dir Health

Srinagar, Mar 19: A day after a coronaviurs case was detected in Kashmir; Directorate of Health Service Kashmir has decided to take samples of all those people who travelled with the said patient in the plane that landed in Srinagar Airport on March 16.

Director Health Service Kashmir, Dr Samir Matuu told Kashmir News Trust that all the passengers who were on board with the victim while travelling to Srinagar will be called and asked to report. “The process has been started and details are being collected. The samples of the all the fellow passengers of the patient will be collected. It is an unavoidable exercise to ensure that Coronavirus infection doesn’t spread,” he said.

Pertinently, a 67 year old elderly woman from Khayam, Khanyar area of Srinagar city was tested positive on Wednesday evening. She had gone to Saudi Arabia for Umrah and before arriving at her native place, she stayed at a couple of places in India including Kochi, and New Delhi.

Director Health Services Kashmir said that teams of doctors have already been dispatched to native area of the victim to collect details from the locals. He said initial details suggest that over 100 people travelled in the plane along with the patient. “Efforts are also on to find out those who came in contact with the said woman,” Matuu said.

Locals living in the vicinity of the infected woman blamed government for the negligence. “How the woman was not properly screened at Srinagar Airport and how she was allowed to stay at her home where large number of people arrived to greet her. This is sheer negligence on part of the team deputed at Srinagar Airport,” said a local from Khayam when doctors were seeking details from him in the premises of his house.

Srinagar administration, meanwhile, has been asking people who might have come in contact with the said patient to report for medical advice. (KNT)