india

Updated: Mar 18, 2020 16:46 IST

West Bengal’s first identified carrier of the deadly coronavirus and members of his family moved around Kolkata for more than 48 hours without any restriction, officials aware of the details of the case said on Wednesday.

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The 18-year-old youth’s mother is Arunima De, a senior bureaucrat at the state home department. She went to her office at Nabanna, the state secretariat, on March 16, a day after her son arrived from London. She spent a few hours at Nabanna, even as Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was taking emergency measures for the general public and issuing warnings.

Some officials said De attended a meeting where senior officials were present.

Asked whether all those who came close to De would be asked to undergo tests, director of health services, Dr Ajoy Chakraborty, said it would be done if De tests positive for Covid-19. “We have to follow the protocol. If De tests positive then certainly all those who came into contact with her will have to be identified and tests have to be conducted,” Chakraborty told HT.

De’s room at Nabanna was locked up on Wednesday and every place where she was last seen was disinfected. De’s office is located at Writer’s Buildings in Kolkata, the old secretariat of the state government. A room is allocated in her name at Nabanna as well.

Till Wednesday afternoon, the state government made no official statement on this. De lives in a high-rise in south Kolkata with her family.

“Officials at Nabanna are taking emergency measures. When I heard about the incident, I could not believe that someone could be so careless,” a minister who did not wish to be identified told HT.

Officials said on condition of anonymity that on March 16 De took her son to M R Bangur Hospital in south Kolkata where the youth was examined by a doctor and a health worker. The bureaucrat was advised to admit her son in the infectious diseases hospital at Beliaghata without delay. However, the advice was not followed.

The youth was taken to the hospital at Beliaghata on Tuesday morning. The doctor and the health worker at M R Bangur Hospital, who examined the youth, are living in isolation at their residences since Tuesday.

The youth is admitted in the infectious diseases hospital while his parents and two drivers who work for the family are admitted at the new isolation facility at Rajarhat. Samples have been collected from the youth’s parents and their employees and sent for tests.

The government is trying to trace the passengers of the flight in which he arrived in Kolkata.