30 CISF stafff quarantined after crash victim tested covid +ve

NEW DELHI: Nearly 30 Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel, who rescued passengers from the Air India Express flight that crashed in Kozhikode on Friday evening, have been quarantined after at least one of the passengers tested positive for Covid-19. The officials have been quarantined for 14 days.

Meanwhile, news agency PTI quoted a senior officer as saying that two passengers have tested positive for Covid-19.

The CISF was the first responder to the crash site at Karipur airport where the Air India Express flight from Dubai overshot the table-top runway, fell into a 35-feet deep valley and broke into two, killing 18 , including the two pilots of the aircraft.

Senior officers of CISF said on Saturday it was discovered that one of the passengers who had died in the crash was infected with Covid.

“There were reports of another survivor being positive, however, it is yet to be ascertained. As a precautionary measure, we have quarantined our personnel involved in rescuing the passengers,” the officer said.

CISF Special Director General (Airports) MA Ganapathy said that so far they have identified 30 CISF personnel through contact tracing who needed to be quarantined. “Thirteen of them who live with their families will remain under home quarantine while the other 17 have been quarantined in a college,” Ganapathy said.

The state government has now urged the residents who helped in the rescue work to go into quarantine. “The state will always remember their work but we have to take precautions,” state health minister K K Shailaja said.

THE CISF WAS THE FIRST RESPONDER TO THE CRASH SITE AT KARIPUR AIRPORT WHERE THE AIR INDIA EXPRESS FLIGHT CRASHED, KILLING 18 PERSONS