People arriving in Kolkata from foreign countries after November 25 kept under special watch – Times Now

Kolkata: More than 800 people who came from UK to the city after November 25 are under watch of the state government. Immigration authorities at the city airport are collecting data of all people who have arrived by Air India flights from London.

The authorities are looking at people from Dubai, Sharjah, Doha and Dhaka to check if anyone had moved airports in the UAE, Qatar and Bangladesh to reach the city during this period. The step comes after a fresh set of SOPs issued by the central government that prescribes different actions for entry and in the community for all international travellers who have travelled from or moved through UK from November 25-December 23.

International flights flew 4,742 people into the city in between November 25-December 17. Four direct flights had reached the city since November 25, carrying 846 passengers, according to Times of India’s sources at the city airport. 

152 people got RT-PCR tests done on arrival, leading to the identification of four people with Covid. Two of them had arrived on the flight on December 6. Two other people had tested positive on arrival, one on October 25 and another on November 15.

A detailed study of genome stains of 1,000 Covid patients done in the country did not throw up this strain from UK. Saumitra Das, director of National Institute of Biomedical Genomics told the Times of India, “It has been decided we would analyse the stored RNA of all RT-PCR positive patients who had arrived from UK from November-end.”

He added, “There is no experimental evidence of the new strain so far.”

NIBG and Indian Institute of Chemical Biology have the latest technology and expertise for genome sequencing. “For now, we will be banking on the Kalyani institute. And if the need arises for more sample analysis or random sequencing, we might seek the help of the institute at Jadavpur,” a TOI source at the West Bengal health department said.