Two more fliers, who had reached Calcutta separately from Dubai in end-February and early-March, were admitted to the Infectious Diseases (ID) Hospital, Beleghata, on Monday after testing positive for Covid-19.

After the two persons testing positive, the state government has decided to admit such people immediately after the test results and without waiting for a confirmatory report of whether the mutant strain of Covid-19 is present in the sample or not.

The two passengers who were admitted to the ID Hospital on Monday were from South 24-Parganas and East Midnapore. The sample of the first, who had arrived from Dubai to Calcutta in early-March, has been sent to the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics in Kalyani for strain-identification. The report of the second, who had landed in end-February, has remained inconclusive, said a health department official.

So far, fliers tested positive at the airport on arrival would be sent home with an advice for self isolation for two weeks. If their samples were found to be positive for any of the mutant strains of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, they would be admitted to the Beleghata-facility.

From Monday, the health department has decided that passengers from abroad testing positive on arrival would be directly admitted to the Beleghata hospital.

The policy-shift came after eight fliers, all from Dubai, first testing positive on arrival and days later one of them was found to be carrying the South African-strain of the coronavirus — the first such occurrence in Bengal so far — and five others with the UK-strain. The health department admitted them to the ID Hospital only between Saturday and Sunday. “We will no longer wait for the results to find out if anyone of them is carrying the mutant strain of the coronavirus,” said a senior official of the Swasthya Bhavan.

Health department has started collecting samples from those who have come in contact with these patients over the last few days. About 110 samples were collected from contacts of three persons.

The health department has also started collecting data of passengers and cabin crew of the flights on which these persons have travelled.

Those in the three rows ahead of the infected person and in the three behind would be contacted to find out if they have developed any symptoms, an official said.