CUDDALORE: It was supposed to be a ‘secret operation’. Cuddalore officials called Ravi (name changed) to inform him that he had tested positive, and realised that he was in a public bus, travelling home after visiting a relative on Monday.
They had to be discreet so as not to spook other passengers, but also ensure Ravi is quickly taken away to a hospital in isolation.
The official at the other end of the phone line decided the best thing to do would be to talk to the conductor.
Ravi passed the phone on to the conductor, and hell broke loose. Once the conductor was informed that Ravi was positive, he realised that he had just taken the phone from the infected man. He couldn’t control his emotions anymore.
The secret was out in the open, and around 15 passengers who were in the bus — instead of waiting to get checked — literally broke into a run for their lives.Now, officials are trying to track down the 15 missing passengers.
Speaking to Express, officials say that Ravi, a Tuberculosis patient, was supposed to have quarantined himself at home after undergoing the test. Instead, he seemed to have travelled around quite a bit.
Ravi, a 57-year-old native of Vadalur, was returning home by a government bus with his wife when he got the call. He had gone to Kadampuliyur near Panruti on Monday afternoon to visit a relative. It was a health official on the other end of the phone, informing Ravi that he had tested positive for Covid.
Ravi had tuberculosis. He had been under treatment since April in a Cuddalore hospital. He was discharged on Sunday after taking a Covid test, but before the results could come out. While officials say Ravi was given clear instructions to stay at home, it’s not clear why a patient, who had been in hospital for months, was discharged before the test results came.
Ravi, happy to be back home, took his wife along and went out. Shocked hearing that he was positive, Ravi did not know what to do. Officials told him not to move, to stay where he was. An ambulance would come there to pick him up. But Ravi had no clue of his location. It was the official who suggested that Ravi pass the phone to the conductor.
“I told him to stop at Mambattu, so that all of them could get checked. But the conductor panicked and spoke loud enough for the rest of passengers to hear. When they knew there was a Covid patient in the bus, they got down and fled,” says the official. Health personnel escorted Ravi and his wife to Rajah Muthiah Medical College Hospital, while the driver and the conductor were sent to Vadalur GH for tests. The bus was taken to depot to be disinfected. An inquiry has been ordered into the incident.