The woman, hailing from Virudhunagar near Madurai, and her daughter underwent an RT-PCR test at the airport.
Both of them were asymptomatic and their health condition was being monitored. (Creative Commons)
Four international passengers tested positive for Covid-19 at two international airports in Tamil Nadu.
A mother and her six-year-old daughter, who returned from China via Colombo, tested positive at the Madurai airport on Tuesday, 27 December.
The woman, hailing from Virudhunagar near Madurai, and her daughter underwent an RT-PCR test at the airport when they landed on Tuesday, 27 December. The results were positive for coronavirus.
Subsequently, they were isolated in their home, according to District Collector Meghanatha Reddy.
Both of them were asymptomatic and their health condition was being monitored.
Their samples were sent for further tests to the State Health Laboratory and for genome sequencing to ascertain whether they were infected with the new BF.7 variant, which is the main cause of a spike in cases in some countries.
The 36-year-old woman’s brother, who drove the family to Virudhunagar from the Madurai airport, would also be subjected to RT-PCR test to eliminate the chances of contracting the virus, state Health Minister Ma Subramanian said.
“The woman and her daughter tested positive for coronavirus while another girl tested negative,” he said.
Their samples were collected based on the country of origin and travel history, the minister told reporters here.
He said that efforts were on to trace their contacts to find out whether any of them were infected.
Two others, who returned from Dubai and Cambodia, tested positive at the Chennai airport on Wednesday, 28 December, the minister said.
“Those coming from China, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea are mandatorily screened for the virus, as per the instruction of Chief Minister MK Stalin. Passengers who arrive from other destinations are subjected to two percent random testing,” Subramanian said.
The government has already activated a mass-fever screening system at the Chennai, Madurai, Tiruchirappalli and Coimbatore airports for early detection of the virus, he said.
On Tuesday, Tamil Nadu reported 10 positive cases while the number of active cases remained at 51.
The Tamil Nadu government intensified the screening of all passengers who arrived at the four airports in the state immediately after the sudden surge in coronavirus cases in China and other countries.
On Tuesday, Minister Subramanian, while inspecting a Covid-19 mock drill at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, said that the government was fully prepared to tackle the possible outbreak.
The health secretary has instructed all government medical college hospitals, district, taluk and non-taluk hospitals to assess their infrastructure for Covid-19 readiness.
On the present Covid status, Subramanian said the state has been reporting less than 10 Covid-19 cases a day for the past 20 days.
Over the past two weeks, Covid-19 cases are rising in countries like Japan, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, France, Italy, Germany and Brazil through Omicron sub-variant BF.7.
(With PTI inputs)
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