Authorities to trace passengers flown into Mumbai with South Africa returnee

The authorities have informed that they will trace passengers flew with South Africa returnee to Mumbai

Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Monday said that it will conduct contact tracing of flyers who travelled with a 32-year-old passenger from Dombivli, landed in Mumbai from South Africa via Delhi.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Monday said that it will conduct contact tracing of flyers who travelled with a 32-year-old passenger from Dombivli, landed in Mumbai from South Africa via Delhi. (REUTERS)

The man who tested positive for Covid has been kept under isolation by the Kalyan-Dombivli civic body.

According to civic authorities, the 32-year-old Dombivli resident returned from South Africa via Dubai and Delhi to Mumbai on November 24.

According to officials, a sample of the passenger was taken at Delhi airport subject to which he was allowed to board a flight to Mumbai. After arriving in the city, he went home in a cab.

A BMC official said, “We are going to do contact tracing of the passengers in Mumbai. This means we will trace and screen the passengers a few rows around the seat of the infected passengers. We will also certainly trace the cab driver with whom he went to Dombivli from Mumbai Airport.”

Officials from Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) said the passenger was put in institutional quarantine on Sunday where he is stable now. Dr Pratibha Panpatil, Health Officer at KDMC said, “We have tested the family of the South Africa returnee and they tested negative. The passenger is also stable now and his reports of genomic sequencing are awaited. We are doing contact tracing in coordination with BMC officials. For now, things are under control.”

Meanwhile, according to BMC officials around 466 people have come from countries of concern in the last two weeks. Of these, 97 were contacted and none are positive. The BMC is expected to undertake a follow-up RT-PCR test on Monday for the above 97 travellers.

The BMC had on Saturday issued an advisory requesting citizens to take more precautions. The BMC had on Saturday said that all international passengers arriving at the city’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) from “countries of concern” including countries from Africa, would be made to undergo mandatory RT-PCR testing for Covid-19, and if found positive, would be sent to an institutional quarantine centre while their samples would be sent to the city’s genome sequencing lab.