The Dakshina Kannada district administration confirmed that four people from Kerala who were isolated when they landed at the Mangaluru International Airport had tested positive for the coronavirus on Tuesday.
Three of the four patients arrived at the Mangaluru International Airport from Dubai on March 19 and March 20. They were isolated at the Wenlock District Hospital after they were screened at the airport. One other patient arrived at the Kozhikode International Airport from Saudi Arabia on March 9 and was admitted at a private hospital in Mangaluru on March 20.
The Dakshina Kannada district administration shared the details of the flights taken by the three patients who travelled from Dubai to Mangaluru. One of the patients, a man aged 47, arrived in the Air India Express (IX 814) flight at 5:00 am on March 19 while two other men, aged 32 and 23, arrived in Mangaluru in the Spicejet (SG-60) flight at 5:30 pm on March 20. The other patient is a 70-year-old woman who travelled from Saudi Arabia to Kozhikode by flight.
All four patients are residents of Kasargod in Kerala and are currently isolated in hospitals in Mangaluru. Kasargod is just 56 km south of Mangaluru and travellers often take flights out of Mangaluru since the nearest airport in Kerala is in Kannur, 90 km away.
All four patients will continue to be in isolation in Mangaluru. This takes the total number of COVID-19 cases in Dakshina Kannada to five after a man from Bhatkal in Uttara Kannada district, who arrived at the Mangaluru International Airport from Dubai on March 19, tested positive. This takes the total number of cases in Karnataka to 41.
TNM had earlier reported how 63 COVID-19 cases in Kerala are people who returned to India from Gulf countries.
The number of cases in Mangaluru increased to five at a time the state government is yet to set up a COVID-19 testing centre in the city. Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar, who has been handed full charge of matters related to COVID-19, had said on March 20 that a laboratory will be set up in Mangaluru to carry out COVID-19 tests.
But as of Tuesday, it is yet to be operational in Dakshina Kannada. A private lab in Manipal in neighboring Udupi district was approved for COVID-19 testing on Tuesday.
Currently, there are 27 people isolated in hospitals in Mangaluru while 2652 people are quarantined at home.