BENGALURU: The Karnataka health department is in a tizzy on being alerted by the Telangana Government that the techie who tested positive for coronavirus there had landed at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) from Dubai on February 19. He had left for Hyderabad on February 21 where he has tested positive.
Karnataka Health Commissioner Pankaj Kumar Pandey said the 24-year-old techie, a native of Telangana whose name has been withheld, is said to be working at a tech park in Bengaluru and lives in a paying guest accommodation in the city. Now health officials are tracking all those he may have come across on landing at KIA, including those on the flight, his co-passengers on the bus to Hyderabad (about 80), besides those he came across in the interim periods. “We have got a list of passengers who were on the bus and we’re tracking them,” Pandey said.
“We are finding out where he used to sit at work, checking the people he worked with, those he interacted with etc. His primary contacts, that is, those who he met on a daily basis, are also being tracked in Bengaluru and will be kept under home isolation. If they find themselves having any symptoms, they have to inform us immediately,”Pandey added.
Considering that he had arrived from Dubai, which has been notified as COVID19-affected city in United Arab Emirates, the techie, as per protocol, had been tested for coronavirus on landing at KIA and subsequently kept in home isolation for two days. But the test results were asymptomatic. So he was allowed to leave for Hyderabad and he left by bus.
Once there, he developed fever. His blood samples were taken and sent to Pune-based National Institute of Virology, which sent back the results on Monday, saying he was coronavirus-positive. He has now been kept in isolation at a hospital in Hyderabad.
Dr Prakash Kumar, Joint Director of Communicable Diseases, Karnataka Health and Family Welfare Department, said: “We are tracking the contact persons in places where he travelled, be it Bengaluru or Hyderabad to check on their health, which bus he took and other details.”