West Bengal government initiates search for 4 co-passengers of coronavirus infected Kerala student
Kolkata/IBNS: The West Bengal government has initiated a search to track down four co-passengers of the Kerala student infected with coronavirus, a Hindustan Times reports said.
According to the report, the four co-passengers of the Kerala student arrived in Kolkata on Jan 23 in a flight from China.
Only two people out of the six from West Bengal, present in that flight could be contacted. The phones of the four others were found to be switched off till Saturday evening, the report added.
Two other people, who came to Kolkata on Jan 30 from other cities of China, were found to be roaming freely instead of being isolated in their homes for at least 14 days as per Centre's directive, Hindustan Times reported.
The news organisation spoke to the two medical students, hailing from Odisha and West Bengal, and both of them said they were leading normal lives as they did not have symptoms like fever and respiratory problems.
One of the youths, a 22-year-old final year medical student of Shandong First Medical University said all the passengers had been tested with thermal scanners and asked to sign a form mentioning their phone number and address. They were allowed to leave the airport. The students said that with no symptoms of infection, there is no the need to remain indoors.
The student from Odisha has been put in a hotel near Kolkata airport and is scheduled to leave the city tonight
Meanwhile, another youth from south Bengal, who is a fourth-year medical student from Zhengzhou University, said the form he was asked to fill contained questions like which cities he had visited in China, if he had visited Wuhan city in Hubei province in the last 14 days, and if he did, how long he remained there and if he had visited any seafood market in the city? He was also asked to tell if he had a set of symptoms listed in the form.
The form also stated that in case of any symptoms in the next 28 days, he/she should contact the Union Home Ministry over the helpline number.
Director of health services of West Bengal Ajoy Chakraborty told the news organisation that all the passengers needn't be kept in quarantine and it applies on only those with symptoms. He said the passengers without symptoms were only told to remain confined to their homes.
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