Three travellers who flew in from Italy, slipped out of the Cochin International Airport after dodging health authorities and surfaced after testing positive for the novel coronavirus are believed to have transmitted the virus to eight of their relatives, including an 85-year-old grandmother and a 90-plus grandfather.
The administration of Pathanamthitta district released two sets of maps on Wednesday, giving a blow-by-blow account of the three people’s travel once they came out of the airport on February 29 until they were hospitalised on March 6.
“It was a laborious job. This flowchart helps people who came in contact with them to get tested for possible infection,” said district collector PB Nooh.
These maps were prepared with the help of health officials, the police, locals and relatives of the three.
The flowchart shows details of places they visited — banks, hotels, bakeries, a church, hospitals, a bar — travelling on auto-rickshaw, public transport and exact timings they did so.
The first set of maps begins from the airport when two relatives came to pick them and their journey to their home and subsequent contacts; the second one shows the travel history of the two (secondary infections) who contracted the virus from them and their possible contact locations.
The flowcharts show that the three were concerned more about their 19-day trip, not the danger of infection they posed. The government has made it clear it will book them once they are discharged from hospital. “They are answerable. But we don’t want to trouble them now,” said health minister KK Shailaja.
The first map begins on February 29, the day the family that lives in Italy — a 55-year-old man, his 53-year-old wife and their 24-year-old son — arrived at the airport for a brief visit home. The map shows that after boarding the car of their relatives (the two people who came to receive them) they started for their hometown, Ranni (Cochin airport to Ranni is a distance of 120 kilometres, about three hours’ drive) and spent an hour at a hotel on their way.
The second day (i.e; March 1), they had an elaborate dinner at a hotel in Ranni, spending one hour and 30 minutes.
Out of the seven days until their hospitalization, they visited the most number of locations on March 2, starting the day at 11 am with visits to post office, church, an emporium, hyper market and bakery before ending their day at their relatives’ place in Punalur. Those who prepared the map say they must have contacted maximum people on that day. Out of 800-odd quarantined in their homes in the district, the maximum came in contact with the family on this day.
On March 3, they reportedly visited the State Bank of India branch in Ranni twice. Two dozen bank officials are among those quarantined. The map shows they visited many places on March 4 and March 5. On March 6, they were taken to hospital with symptoms of the coronavirus. On March 4, they had reportedly visited a private clinic but they did not reveal their travel history and took medicines for fever and throat pain. The state health minister confirmed this. The family’s itinerary came to light when their two relatives went to a hospital in Pathanamthitta with fever and throat pain. There, the duty doctor asked them whether they had relatives who had returned from abroad and they revealed the Italian connection.
After preparing the map, the district administration has given two toll-free numbers for those who came in contact with them. “We hope our maps will help those who indirectly came in contact with them. Prevention is better than cure,” said district collector Nooh.
