Efforts on to trace co-passengers of Coimbatore woman tested positive

24/03/2020, WILSON THOMAS ,COIMBATORE

A day after a 25-year-old woman, who returned from Spain, tested positive for COVID-19 in Coimbatore, Health Department was in the efforts to gather details of persons who travelled with here on flight and train.

Though a Health Department official claimed that they traced the train and flight on which she travelled, details were not shared. Health Department sought the help of Southern Railway to track the co-passengers in train on which she travelled from Bengaluru to Coimbatore.

“It is very important to trace the entire travel history of a person tested positive for COVID-19. Co-passengers in flight and train should be identified and they need to be kept under observation. If required, tests should be done.

These co-passengers will interact with several other people including family members and friends without knowing the fact that they travelled in close proximity with a person who contracted the virus,” said a public health expert who did not want to be named.

While her father and sister were in quarantine at hospital from Sunday, driver of a taxi in which she travelled from Coimbatore railway station to her house near Saibaba Colony, two of her friends, doctors and medical team, who attended to her while collecting swab sample and in quarantine, were under observation.

Woman refused to listen

Meanwhile, an official at the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital claimed that the woman refused to listen to the advise of medical team when she came to the hospital with certain symptoms of the viral infection on March 19.

“The woman refused to remain in hospital quarantine and left for home despite knowing the fact that her friend in Spain contracted COVID-19. Then we contacted her father and advised the risks involved in staying at house or roaming freely. She later came to the hospital and medical team kept her in quarantine after lifting sample,” said the official.

Residents of the locality where the woman’s house is situated were in panic since Sunday evening after hearing about the confirmation of test result.