UPDATE: Google has said that the husband tested +ve on March 12 and not 7, as the story claimed.

AGRA: A 25-year-old Agra woman whose husband, a Google employee, tested positive for novel coronavirus in Bengaluru earlier this week, also tested positive on Friday. According to health officials, the woman, who recently returned from her honeymoon in Italy and was put under quarantine after her husband showed symptoms of the disease, escaped from Bengaluru on March 8, took a flight to New Delhi and travelled to Agra to be with her parents.

Not only that, the health officials said they faced resistance when they visited the house where she was found staying with eight other family members and could only move them to isolation wards after the district magistrate intervened and a police force was called.

There is discrepancy in the dates Agra health officials shared with TOI and what Google India has stated. A Google spokesperson said the Bengaluru-based employee was tested positive on March 12 and not on March 7. He had joined the office on March 9 where he felt unwell and was admitted for a check-up on March 10. "As per the records that have been confirmed with health officials, the Google employee got admitted on the 10th (of March) and was confirmed as a positive case on 12th March evening," Google spokesperson said in an emailed statement. He also clarified that the employee did not travel to Italy but to Greece, Switzerland and France.

Agra chief medical officer Dr Mukesh Kumar Vats said, “After the medical team reached the house of the woman’s parents, her father, a railway engineer, refused to cooperate with us and lied that his daughter had left for Bengaluru. But after the district magistrate’s intervention, we were able to gain access to their house and took all the nine family members to the district hospital for screening."

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" The woman has now been shifted to the isolation ward in S N Medical College.”

A health official, who interacted with the woman in S N Medical College, said, “The woman got married to the Bengaluru-based Google employee in early February. The couple left for their honeymoon soon afterwards to Italy and later travelled to Greece and France. They landed at Mumbai airport on February 27 and flew back to Bengaluru.”

“However, on March 7, her husband tested positive for Covid-19 and they were both quarantined in Bengaluru. Later, the woman informed her parents about her situation and allegedly at his request, she returned to Agra on March 8,” he said.

She took a Bengaluru-New Delhi flight and later a train to travel to her parental home. Her travel details are being verified.

Health officials swung into action after alerts from Aligarh Medical College, which rated the woman as highly suspected Covid-19-infected patient, as well as Lucknow-based KGMU.

Agra DM Prabhu Narayan Singh said, “The woman returned to Agra on Sunday. We have isolated her family members and deputed a surveillance team to monitor them.”

A senior doctor associated with the isolation program of the Covid-19 in Agra said, “The newly married woman is the first positive corona-infected patient admitted to S N Medical College. Her sample has been sent to Pune-based National Institute of Virology for further tests. Since, she travelled by air, there is a high chance that passengers sitting near her in two rows back, front and side, might also be infected with Covid-19.”

Meanwhile, taking precautionary measures, Agra railway authorities along with the district administration started sanitising the railway station and coaches.

Chief public relations officer of North Central Railway zone, Ajit Singh, said, “The entire Agra Cantt railway station, trains and railway premises are being sanitized. We also are coordinating with the state authorities to contain the spread of virus and have set up an isolation ward at the railway hospital. We have alerted our employees to follow proper precautionary measures to avoid getting Covid-19.”