Samples of all 17 foreign nationals from Kyrgyzstan, and two tour guides, who were in the eye of a media storm, tested negative for coronavirus (Covid-19) in Patna on Thursday resulting in huge relief for state officials.
A section of the media (not the Hindustan Times) had questioned the authorities for not taking samples for a confirmatory test of the foreign nationals during their initial screening at AIIMS-Patna on March 23.
Patna AIIMS had defended the administration’s decision to not collect suspects’ oropharyngeal samples for confirmatory testing.
“The foreign nationals did not show any symptoms of coronavirus. Besides, they did not have any international travel history during the last 14 days. They had arrived in India in the month of January and to Bihar only on March 3,” said Dr Neeraj Aggarwal, nodal officer for Covid-19 and dean of AIIMS-Patna.
He added that the foreigners had denied coming in contact with any high-risk Covid-19 patient, including those from the Nizamuddin religious gathering.
“They also did not tell us anything about having visited Nizamuddin markaz in Delhi. As per the health ministry’s guidelines, taking their oropharyngeal sample was not necessary. Based on their clinical assessment and results of thermal scanning, our doctors advised 14 days of home quarantine to them,” Dr Aggarwal added.
Patna district magistrate Kumar Ravi was guarded in his comments when this reporter asked him if any of the 19 people tested had visited the Nizamuddin markaz.
“That is for the police to investigate,” said Ravi, while confirming that all 19 samples had tested negative.
Efforts to reach Patna senior superintendent of police Upendra Kumar Sharma proved futile, as he did not respond to phone calls or text messages.
Twelve of the 19 people, who have now been put under home quarantine, were staying at a mosque in Kurji area of the capital and another seven at Phulwarisharif, before apprehensive locals informed the police on March 23.
On Wednesday, the electronic media reports speculated that the 17 Kyrgyzstan nationals could have also been among the 86 Tablighi Jamaat attendees from Bihar, identified by the centre.
The swab samples of these foreigners were collected on Tuesday evening and sent for test to ICMR-Rajendra Memorial Institute of Medical Sciences in Patna. It was necessitated as a precautionary step following a spike in the number of Covid-19 cases in the country due to cases linked to the Nizamuddin congregation.
Bihar chief secretary Deepak Kumar said the samples of 4,000-odd foreigners, who reached Bihar between March 15 and 23, were now being mandatorily screened.
