india

Updated: Mar 15, 2020 17:32 IST

Twenty Dubai-bound passengers were not allowed to go further from the international airport in Kerala’s Kochi after a UK national among them tested positive for novel coronavirus shortly before takeoff on Sunday, officials said.

A spokesperson of the Cochin International Airport Limited said the person, who tested positive on Sunday, has been taken to an isolation facility at a nearby government hospital.

This takes the total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in Kerala to 20 so far.

The flight left for Dubai in the afternoon after the 20 passengers were detained. The spokesperson, however, did not mention the number of passengers on board the flight when it left.

Also read: Coronavirus cases in India touch 107; Maharashtra, Kerala have most numbers

Earlier, at least 289 passengers of the Dubai-bound Emirates flight were offloaded at the airport after the UK national was found to be infected by the coronavirus.

The UK passenger belonged to a group of 19 people holidaying in the hill resort town of Munnar in Kerala and was under surveillance, the spokesperson had said earlier in the day.

The passenger joined the group to reach the Kochi airport without informing authorities in Munnar, he said. The authorities came to know that he was at the Kochi airport and travelling by the Emirates flight when the test result came.

It was later decided to offload all the 19 passengers of his group, the official said.

Chief minister Pinarayi Vijaray has ordered a probe to find out how the United Kingdom national reached the Kochi international airport.

Kerala had pressed the emergency button announcing a series of measures to check the spread of the virus after several imported to local transmission cases of coronavirus was reported from the state.

Also read: Fleeing patients pose a huge risk

The state health department has called for strict community surveillance, scaling up of contact tracing and tapping local bodies to check the spread of the deadly disease.

Two important shrines, Guruvayoor and Sabarimala, have scaled down their daily grind. The Nair Service Society has also asked people to avoid big gatherings.

Cinema halls have also announced closure and film units also suspended their shooting. Hotels and resorts have been asked not to entertain foreign guests until further notice.

The state had reported India’s first three cases of coronavirus in January this year. They have now recovered fully.