BHUBANESWAR: Odisha government on Thursday started an exercise to trace and test around 61 persons who have returned to Odisha in the last two weeks.The list of returnees was shared by the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) with the State government.
Of the 3,445 travellers who returned to India from Britain since December 7 via IGI Airport at Delhi, around 61, including 12 women, were from 15 districts of Odisha. On receiving the list, the State Health and Family Welfare department has sounded an alert asking districts and municipalities to track the returnees and intensify active surveillance in their areas.
The highest 25 people have returned to Bhubaneswar, followed by five to Cuttack, four to Berhampur, three to Koraput, two each to Nayagarh and Nabarangpur and one each to Khurda, Sambalpur, Balangir, Jagatsinghpur, Rajgangpur, Jajpur, Puri and Mayurbhanj.
The DDMA has also shared the names, passport and contact numbers of the rest of the passengers whose whereabouts will be ascertained by the Covid monitoring cell.
Additional Chief Secretary of Health department PK Mohapatra said “All inbound passengers from the UK will be subjected to RT-PCR test followed by genome sequencing at the designated laboratory. Officials have been directed to track them and start immediate contact tracing.”
Besides, people who have returned from Britain between November 25 and December 23 are urged to self-register with the helpline no. 104 and 0674-2390466 for monitoring by rapid response teams and testing, Mohapatra said. Meanwhile, the three family members of the 34-year-old UK returnee, who was found Covid-19 positive a couple of days back, have tested negative.
The returnee is under isolation in a dedicated Covid Hospital here and the report of genome study of his samples for the mutated SARS-CoV2 strain is awaited.