State Govts unable to locate returnees as their addresses are wrong, phones switched off
In an alarming development, hundreds of passengers who recently returned from the United Kingdom have not been traced across the country due to incorrect contact details furnished by them. The State administrations are finding it difficult to locate a number of these passengers as their contact numbers are either switched off or not traceable. In many cases, their addresses are also proving to be incorrect.
For instance 279 returnees in Talangana, 151 in Karnatakan, 15 in Gurugram are untraceable so far. Meanwhile, 22 more passengers (16 in Maharashtra, two in Delhi, two in Telangana and one each in MP and UP) who returned from the United Kingdom have been tested positive.
According to director of Public Health G Srinivasa Rao, 1,216 people have arrived in Telangana from the United Kingdom since December 9 and a total of 937 have been identified and tested for Covid-19 and 279 passengers are still untraceable. Of the total 279 flyers, 92 untraceable passengers are from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Kerala.
The Karnataka Government also is now on the lookout for the 151 untraceable United Kingdom returnees. All of them have returned to Bengaluru since December 7 but have gone missing.
These 151 people are yet to be traced as their phone numbers are either switched off or not traceable. In Gurugram at least 15 returnees from the United Kingdom, in the last two weeks, cannot be traced. Additionally, seven travellers have refused to get themselves tested for Covid-19.
In Uttar Pradesh one passenger has went missing after returning from the United Kingdom.
As per the data, 1,822 travellers to Punjab from the United Kingdom in the last one month landed at the Delhi international airport. As many as 1,604 travellers to Punjab and elsewhere landed at the Sri Guru Ram Das Jee International Airport, after November 25. Of a total of 3,426 returnees, nearly 2,500 are still believed to be in the state.
As many as 16 returnees from the United Kingdom, where a new variant of coronavirus was detected recently, have tested positive in RT PCR tests conducted on their arrival in Maharashtra. Two more passengers tested positive in Telangana after landed from the United Kingdom.
One United Kingdom returnee has tested positive in Jalore in Madhya Pradesh. He had tested negative on December 7 after arriving in Delhi. He along with two members of his family has tested positive now. A Merchant Navy captain, who returned from the United States and the United Kingdom recently in Bareilly, has tested positive for Covid-19.
Meanwhile, two more persons who recently returned to Delhi from the United Kongdom were found to be Covid positive during a door-to-door contact-tracing and testing exercise. With this, the number of people testing positive for the disease after returning from the United Kongdom has gone up to 21 in the national capital. All of them returned from the United Kongdom after November.
