Bhopal: 24 Indian nationals who returned to India from Kuwait by two special flights have tested positive for novel Coronavirus in Bhopal on Tuesday, the health department said.
These were among the 134 Indians who arrived in Indore on May 13. From Indore, the passengers were brought to Bhopal in buses and are quarantined in Bhopal at 3EME centre facility at Bairagarh. The CISF personnel who had handled the passports of Kuwait returned passengers on May 13 at Indore Airport have also been home quarantined.
The first batch of 18 passengers tested positive on Sunday. 30 more tested positive for the virus subsequently. The patients have been admitted to the Chirayu Medical College Hospital and the hospitals associated with the state government-run Gandhi Medical College in Bhopal.
So far, 48 out of the 234 passengers who returned to the country have tested positive. According to passengers, they tested negative twice before boarding their flight back to India.
Indians were brought back from Kuwait as a part of central government’s Vande Bharat Mission to bring back all Indian nationals stranded abroad. The Kuwait returnees hail from Kerala, Telangana, Goa, UP, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh.
According to data by the health ministry, nearly 5,000 people have contracted coronavirus in the state with 1,046 cases reported in the capital. Among them, 632 have recovered and there are currently 375 active Covid-19 cases. Three who have recovered also donated their blood for ongoing clinical trial convalescent plasma for Covid-19 at Gandhi Medical College (GMC).
The state’s death toll stands at 248 while no new death in Bhopal is reported in the last 24 hours keeping the city’s death tally at 39.
