Manipur COVID-19 Case: 11 on Same Aircraft to be Tested in Tripura

Agartala, March 25, 2020:

The State of Tripura, which has issued an alert following the detection of the first COVID-19 positive case from Manipur (the 23-year-old patient had flown from London via Calcutta and Agartala), has zeroed in on 11 co-passengers for testing. The 11 people, who were travelling with the 23-year-old, had reportedly gotten down in Tripura.

As many as 11 persons have been identified by the State Health and Family Welfare department who travelled aboard the same aircraft with the first COVID-19 positive case reported in Imphal, Manipur, on Tuesday.

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The girl who tested positive to the deadly Covid 19 flew to Agartala from Kolkata and then Imphal through an Air Asia craft. After she was marked as 'positive' for the deadly virus, the Airport Authority of India, Health department and law enforcement agencies swung into action to discover the people with a similar travel history.

Speaking to this reporter, COVID-19 surveillance officer Deep Debbarma said, “Blood samples of those travelers will be tested today to find out whether they are exposed to the infection or not. Apparently, there are no symptoms of COVID-19 in any of the travelers”.

Reportedly, the infected patient and her brother returned to Delhi from the UK on March 19 last. Later, the siblings boarded an Air Asia connecting flight to return to their hometown Imphal on March 21 last. The girl fell ill after returning home and was tested positive, confirmed the Health department of Manipur.

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But, as per her twitter handle, she knew that she was infected by the disease and still took the risk to travel. In a series of tweets, the girl expressed about her illness before travelling back to her homeland.

Meanwhile, immediately after the matter was disclosed, the state government of Tripura took prompt action to lock down the state to prevent further spread of the contagion. MBB Airport Manager Jempu Hoakip told this reporter that they had handed out a list of passengers to the health department. “We have handed over a list of passengers who shared the seats with her. There are altogether 11 names of passengers among the 73 total passengers who were in and around the girl”, Haokip said.

Apart from this, Dr. Deep Debbarma also informed that altogether 417 persons had been self quarantined across the state, along with 47 people kept in isolation. “We have taken all the preventive measures. We are also marking the people who have a travel history to the worst hit countries in the world”, Debbarma told this reporter.

It needs mention here that the coronavirus or COVID-19 has so far affected 192 countries and territories around the world with the highest cases in China, Italy, USA, Spain, Germany, Iran, France, South Korea and Switzerland. In India, the number of cases has risen to 562 and the Government has imposed a lockdown till April 14.

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