The Bengal health department is tracking down the passengers of an Etihad Airways flight from Abu Dhabi to Calcutta who had travelled with the 18-year-old student who tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday.

The student, from a reputable college in the UK, had arrived in Calcutta from Abu Dhabi early on Sunday morning (March 15, not March 16 as this newspaper had reported earlier).

Flight EY0256 carried 69 other passengers and seven crew members. Airport and health department sources said the student, son of a bureaucrat at Nabanna, was in seat 11F.

The passengers seated in the same row and those on the three rows in front of 11F or the three behind will be tested because they are being considered primary contacts, a health department official said. “All of them are from Calcutta and other parts of Bengal,” the official said.

This newspaper is mentioning the seat number to avert panic among passengers who may not be contacted by the officials.

The health official explained that primary contacts are people who have been within two metres of someone who has tested positive. “We are also keeping ready a list of secondary contacts — those who came in contact with the primary contacts,” the official said.

The health department on Wednesday took the passenger manifesto of the flight from the airline.

Etihad sources said they were yet to decide whether to quarantine the crew.

State health department and airport officials said the student had declared himself asymptomatic in the form that needs to be filled in at the health check counter of Calcutta airport before coming out. The form asks whether a passenger is suffering from fever, cough or respiratory distress.

“He had ticked the ‘No’ options for all three queries and had also signed it. So there was no way to know he had coronavirus,” said a health department official.

A Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) team went to the homes of two domestic workers who worked at the youth’s home in southeast Calcutta.

“The two have been removed to the quarantine centre. We went to their homes and asked their family members to stay in home quarantine and not step out till further instructions,” a CMC official said.

Earlier in the morning, a CMC official who had come in contact with the youth’s mother was advised to stay in home quarantine. The CMC official had gone to the woman’s office to collect a certificate needed for his son-in-law.