As many as 24 of the 134 Indians who landed in Indore on Kuwait Airways flights in May have tested positive for Covid-19.
Eighteen were detected late Saturday night, and eight more on Sunday. News of this triggered alarm at Indore airport, which had handled their disembarkation and immigration and put them on buses for Bhopal, where they were quarantined at the Army’s 3 EME Centre.
A CISF personnel, who had handled their passports, has been put in home quarantine in his barracks. All the officials who handled the six-hour operation that day wore PPEs, including the security personnel now in quarantine.
The airport was sanitized yet again on Sunday, though it’s a regular feature and had been cleaned up soon after the homecoming Indians had been sent off.
All 24 patients have been admitted to Chirayu Medical College, say sources in the district admiration. The others are in quarantine at the Army facility in Bairagarh on the outskirts of Bhopal.
Officials didn’t disclose too many details on the Covid patients but sources say they are from Kerala, Telangana, Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Punjab.
The quarantined CISF officials haven’t shown any symptom so far. “He is under close supervision as a precautionary measure since he had touched the passports of arriving passengers for verification,” said airport director Aryama Sanyal, adding that he was kitted out in protective gear while on duty that day.
With a domestic Air India flight expected from Ahmedabad on May 24, Indore airport authorities may take a relook at their procedures to see if they can virus-proof it even further.
