Lko airport in focus after PGI nurse who returned from Kerala tests positive

With a nurse and her family staying on Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS) campus testing positive for Covid on their return from Kerala, questions are being raised on testing being done at the airport, from where the authorities fear more cases could come.

While samples of the nurse’s family members have been sent to the KGMU lab for genome sequencing (test of Delta variant), the health department is busy tracing contacts so that the virus does not spread.

After contact tracing, samples of more than 122 contacts of the nurse on the campus had been sent for test, said officials, who want airport to tighten screening of passengers.

“We all know that the threat of a third wave is real, and it is most likely to make way into the state through passengers coming from other states. Still, officials at the Lucknow airport are not that vigilant about testing passengers arriving here,” said a group of passengers who are frequent to Lucknow.

“Passengers pass through the arrival gate, but no one stops them for the RTPCR test. This has happened more than once with me,” said one of the frequent fliers, a resident of Lucknow.

Officials of Lucknow airport, however, reject the charge.

“We are very much vigilant and testing passengers as per the directives of the government of India,” said an official.

On July 30, the family of a nurse working in Sanjay Gandhi

Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS), who arrived from Kerala, was allowed to leave the airport after thermal scanning. The family developed Corona after their arrival inside PGI campus.

“Around 122 passengers arrived in the flight with the infected family. Contact tracing of all the passengers is a big challenge for us,” said a health department official.

The authorities at airport insist that passengers who have received both shots of vaccine and have Covid negative report of last three days are allowed to go after thermal scanning.

Those passengers who have not received both shots are taken for test after their arrival at airport. Our team is testing around 150 passengers per day and team of the CMO is also testing around similar number of passengers, said the spokesperson.

They said the nurse and her husband had taken both the shots of vaccine and hence were allowed to leave after ther scanning. According to offic around 48 flights, inclu four international flights, operating per day from know airport. There is a foo of around 10,000 passen from Lucknow airport per

The spokesperson of A Airports said, “We are keepi strict watch on passeng besides that two teams of C office are also deputed for s ning of patients.”

Deputy CMO Dr Mi Wardhan said, “Yes, our te are keeping a strict watc each passenger arriving at airport. In the case of the nurse, she and her husb were vaccinated. However are going for aggressive con tracing in this case.”

He said, “The effort is to the spread of virus. All the sengers are expected to pro proof of them being Covid n tive at the time of boarding plane. They are suppose carry Covid negative re from an authorised lab.”