An 18-year-old woman who arrived in Kolkata from the UK, via Doha, on Friday has tested positive for Covid and been admitted to a private hospital.
Her swab samples have been sent to the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics in Kalyani, around 65km north of Kolkata, to ascertain whether she has been infected by the Omicron variant of the virus, health department officials said.
“One patient who came from the UK was found positive for Covid. The specimen has been sent for genome sequencing. The patient was initially kept at Beleghata ID Hospital and later taken to a private hospital for institutional quarantine. The condition of the patient is stable,” said Ajoy Chakraborty, the state’s director of health services.
The state government has said passengers testing positive after arriving from “at-risk” countries will be admitted to the ID hospital. Those who want to get admitted to a private facility will be allowed to do so. “The woman is doing fine. All her parameters are stable,” said an official of the private hospital where she was shifted.
A state government official said those who were sitting in the three rows immediately ahead of and behind the woman’s seat on the aircraft and those seated beside her would be closely monitored over the next few days.
The UK is one of the at-risk countries and anyone arriving from there has to undergo a mandatory Covid-19 test at the airport before they are allowed to leave. The Union government’s ‘at-risk’ list has 12 countries. Qatar, whose capital is Doha, is not on the list.
“During screening, we found that the woman had started her journey from the UK. She was then asked to undergo a Covid test and she tested positive,” said airport director C. Pattabhi.