Bengaluru/Hyderabad: A 24-year-old Telangana techie, who hails from Hyderabad but works in Bengaluru, was infected with the corona virus while on a trip to Dubai.
What is causing concern in Bengaluru is that the patient travelled along with other passengers – first in a flight from Dubai and later to Hyderabad by bus.
Sources said he must have come into contact with many co-passengers – both on flight and the bus. Efforts are on to trace the passengers who came on the same flight from Dubai and those who travelled to Hyderabad.
Telangana Health Minister Etela Rajender told the media in Hyderabad that over 80 persons, who may have come in direct contact with the patient, are being tracked.
In Bengaluru, authorities at the Kempagowda International Airport are trying get details of the passengers who travelled with him.
Sources said over 800 people may have been exposed to the carrier and frantic efforts are on to trace them.
Getting the names of passengers on Dubai-Bengaluru flight and identifying them may not pose a problem, but the road trip has put the authorities into a tailspin. It would be difficult to find out the people with whom he interacted or got in touch with, sources admitted.
He works for an IT company and had gone to Dubai on February 17 and returned to Bengaluru on February 22. The patient reportedly cleared the initial screening test for COVID 19 in Bengaluru. He then took the bus to Hyderabad.
A week ago he developed high fever and went to a local hospital in Hyderabad. Since the fever was of unexplained origin and was not subsiding, the hospital authorities referred him to the Government-run Gandhi Hospital.
Doctors in Gandhi Hospital immediately sent his samples for COVID 19 test and the initial reports were positive. He was placed in the isolation ward on March 1 and another sample was sent to the National Institute of Virology in Pune. This too is positive, reports on Monday said.
Meanwhile, the patient is reportedly stable and the doctors have been able to control his fever.
