PANAJI: A 41-year-old British national of Goan-origin tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday on his arrival at the international airport near here from the UK, the state government said.
State health authorities have isolated the man, whose test at the airport in Dabolim returned positive for COVID-19, at a government-run healthcare facility in Cansaulim as he has arrived from one of the 'at-risk' countries where cases of the newly discovered Omicron variant have been detected.
Health Minister Vishwajit Rane tweeted, "A 41-year-old British national of Goan origin tested positive today morning at the airport. The patient has been isolated at PHC-Cansaulim." Airport officials said the passenger was on-board the 98th Vande Bharat Mission (VBM) flight that arrived at the Goa airport during the wee hours.
The Goa airport tweeted, "Goa Airport has ramped up the infrastructure reqd for post arrival testing of Int'l arriving passengers. Sufficient Registration counters, swab collection centres, waiting area are provided for smooth management, safety and convenience of pax." In another tweet, it said, "98th in the series of VBM flight arrived from London-Heathrow today early morning at Goa International Airport. Arriving passengers undergoing thermal screening and completing mandatory formalities upon arrival." The VBM is a central government initiative to bring back Indians stranded abroad due to the coronavirus pandemic and the resultant travel curbs.
Authorities in Goa have already isolated five crew members of a merchant navy ship who had tested positive for COVID-19. Their swab samples have been sent to the Pune-based National Institute of Virology for genome sequencing and reports are awaited.