A woman from Rajahmundry in East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, who arrived from the United Kingdom and reportedly fled a quarantine centre in Delhi to reach her home town, was shifted to an isolation ward at the Rajahmundry government general hospital. The woman has tested positive for COVID-19.
The incident
The woman went to the UK last year and returned to Delhi on December 21 night. After her samples were collected, she was shifted to a quarantine centre from where she disappeared and boarded a train to Rajahmundry on December 22 along with her son who went to Delhi to receive her.
Officials in the national capital alerted their counterparts in Andhra who tried to contact the woman and her son but their phones were switched off. Based on the passport details, the woman's address was traced to Hukumpet in Rajahmundry and a watch was kept at the
Their swab samples are being sent to the National Institute of Virology in Pune to determine whether she contracted the new strain of COVID-19, detected in the United Kingdom, a Health department official said.
Out of control strain of coronavirus in UK
The country is on a high alert following the detection of the new virulent, "out of control" strain of coronavirus in the UK and has initiated various measures including rigorous testing of those who had arrived from England recently.
The woman, who reached her hometown Rajamahendravaram in Andhra Pradesh after allegedly running away from a quarantine facility in Delhi was held by the Railway police and health authorities and admitted to a local hospital after Wednesday midnight.
According to officials, the woman, however, told the authorities in Amaravati that only home quarantine was recommended for her and as such she left Delhi on her own as she was asymptomatic. Her son, who went to the national capital to pick her up, was also admitted in the hospital and both have been kept in isolated rooms.
The woman who was working as a teacher in the UK, returned to India on December 21 and landed in Delhi.
She tested positive for COVID-19 and kept in a quarantine facility there. However, she allegedly escaped from there and, accompanied by her son, took the Andhra Pradesh Express to Rajamahendravaram.
Alerted by Delhi police, the Railway police discovered she was travelling by the first class coach in AP Express and the information was passed on to the authorities in Rajamahendravaram.
As the mother and son reached the city around midnight on Wednesday, the waiting health authorities took them away to hospital following the protocols.
No case has been registered
No case has been registered against them, officials said. East Godavari District Coordinator of Health Services T Ramesh Kishore said that the woman was asymptomatic but they collected fresh samples to check if the new coronavirus strain has infected her.
This was the first instance of a person returning from the UK to AP after the new coronavirus strain was detected and fresh protocols have been put in place to screen such travellers. The Civil Aviation Ministry had on Monday suspended all flights connecting India and the UK from December 23 to December 31 after the discovery of the new strain of the deadly virus.
