A man who flew in from Dubai on Sunday fled from the isolation ward of a hospital in Mangaluru before he was tested for Covid-19.
He was admitted to the Wenlock District Hospital after he was screened at the Mangaluru international airport. A surveillance team is now searching for the man to ensure that he is tested for the virus.
The man was screened at the Mangaluru airport at 8 pm on Sunday before he was taken to the Wenlock District Hospital at 9 pm. A health official in Dakshina Kannada district told TNM that "he did not exhibit symptoms of the coronavirus except for a mild temperature".
But the man refused to undergo the throat swab procedure to test himself for the virus and 'escaped' Wenlock District Hospital at 9 pm. "He has given in writing that he does not want to be tested at a government hospital and that he intends to get himself tested at a private facility," an official in the hospital told TNM.
According to those at the hospital, the man argued with authorities at the hospital and demanded that his passport be returned to him. Hospital authorities took photocopies of his passport before he left the hospital. Sources in the health department suggested that the man was irked by the fact that he was being treated like a patient by health officials who brought him from the airport to the hospital in an ambulance.
On Monday morning, a missing persons complaint was registered against the man at Pandeshwara police station in the city. "Surveillance teams are now looking for him to test him for the virus. We have sent teams to his relatives' houses but so far he is evading our teams," a district health official told TNM. The official said that the teams were being turned away by his relatives.
"We will be relieved if he chooses to test himself for the virus," the official added.