JAIPUR: Amid worries over the more contagious Covid-19 strain found in the UK, 17 of the passengers from that country who arrived in Rajasthan are missing.
The Gehlot government is now tracking the 811 passengers who arrived in the state in the last two months, according to the data on tourists sent by the Centre to the state government.
Following the new set of SOPs issued by the Centre for passengers who reached the country from the UK between November 25 and December 23, the Rajasthan health department has alerted the chief medical health officers in all districts to identify such passengers and conduct their RT-PCR tests.
In addition, the department has strengthened Covid screening of passengers landing at airports in the state especially those landing by international flights.
Over the past two months, 700-odd people have arrived from the UK in different cities of Rajasthan which include 443 passengers who have arrived in Jaipur alone. In addition, dozens of people have also arrived in Jodhpur (73), Ajmer (70), Alwar (48), Udaipur (43) and Kota (39). In the past 15 days, 272 such people have arrived in Jaipur alone. Tracking this large number of arrivals is proving to be a tough task though health officials have forwarded the details to the district collectors and directed them to ensure isolation and testing of the tourists.
In Ajmer, the health department is on its toes as a 20-year-old UK returnee recently tested positive. The young girl was studying in the UK for the past three years and returned to Ajmer on December 14. Her samples have been sent to a specialised lab in Pune to test her for the new Covid-19 strain found in the UK and nine other members of her family are also being tested.
In Udaipur, a young man who had returned from the UK only on December 25 has been giving quite a headache to local health officials. The 30-year-old man gave a run around to officials for three days and was finally traced only through the help of the police. Udaipur CMHO Dinesh Kharadi admitted that they have not been able to trace five people in the district -- one of them had returned to the UK, 2 went to Ajmer and while one went to Ahmedabad, the other to Bikaner.
Similarly, a number of people have not been traced in Jhunjhunu and Jaisalmer. Overall, health officials admitted that 17 people mentioned in the list sent by the Centre are yet to be traced. Experts say the delay in tracking down these individuals could prove costly as this new strain from the UK for COVID-19 infection is highly transmissible.
Even as fears and worries escalate, India has only one lab in Pune that provides testing for the new COVID-19 strain from UK and health officials say that with samples piling up in that lab, it is taking 7-8 days to get reports.
While officials say there is no need to panic, Dr. Ravi Prakash, Joint Director of the health department, said: “We got a huge list from the Centre and are using our resources in all districts to ensure effective tracing. We have still not been able to track down 17 people from the UK but our district officials are monitoring the situation and even taking the help of local police in all those districts.”