35 from Calcutta came in contact with second patient – Telegraph India

Kolkata News

The health department has tracked down 35 people in the city who came in contact with a 22-year-old Ballygunge youth who tested positive for Covid-19 on Friday.

The youth’s immediate family, the Calcuttans who were within three rows of his seat on the Abu Dhabi-Calcutta flight and people he had met after his arrival on March 13 have been quarantined.

Fifteen persons from other states who were also on the flight with him have also been identified.

“All 35 people have been quarantined. Eleven of them, family members and close contacts of the youth, are in the quarantine facility set up by the state government in New Town. The rest are in home quarantine,” a health department official said.

The youth who came from the UK on March 13 told health officials that he visited a cafe and a temple after arriving in Calcutta. His father runs a sanitaryware business in south Calcutta. Residents of the neighbourhood where the store is located complained to police that they had seen the father and son at the store after March 13.

Based on the complaint, police shut down the store on Friday.

Though the youth had arrived on March 13, when restrictions on passengers coming from the UK had not been imposed, all passengers from abroad had been advised home quarantine for at least 14 days, health officials said.

Ninety people were in quarantine at the New Town facility as of Saturday evening, a health department official said. They will have to remain in quarantine for at least 14 days.

The number of people sent to the facility from the airport between late on Friday and Saturday was over 700. “The new protocol says that all passengers who are asymptomatic would go to the New Town facility on arrival at Dum Dum airport. Who would be allowed to go home and stay in quarantine and who would have to stay quarantined in the government-run facility in New Town would be determined at the facility,” an official said.

Of the 700 taken to the quarantine unit, most were allowed to go home and asked to isolate themselves. Only those above 60 or with underlying conditions such as asthma or diabetes were quarantined at the unit.

Asymptomatic passengers are sent to home quarantine, while those who show symptoms of Covid-19 at the airport screening are sent to the Beleghata hospital directly from the airport so that they can be admitted.

Source: https://www.telegraphindia.com/states/west-bengal/35-from-calcutta-came-in-contact-with-second-patient/cid/1756634