Kerala Chief Minister In Self-Isolation After 22 Officials Test Positive Kerala plane crash: The Air India Express plane came with 184 passengers from Dubai under the centre's Vande Bharat Mission that expatriates Indians stranded abroad amid the COVID-19 pandemic
Reported by
Sneha Mary Koshy, Edited by
Debanish Achom (with inputs from PTI)Updated: August 14, 2020 5:16 pm IST
Thiruvananthapuram: Twenty-two officials who responded to the plane crash in Kerala last week have tested positive for coronavirus, the Malappuram medical officer told NDTV. The Air India Express plane came with 184 passengers from Dubai under the centre's Vande Bharat Mission that expatriates Indians stranded abroad amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
"They were quarantined after the rescue operations at the plane crash site ended. Most of them were on location," the district medical officer said. Some 600 people including locals were asked to go into quarantine the very next day by health officials.
The district medical officer's team is undertaking risk assessment and more details are awaited.
Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, senior ministers including state Health Minister KK Shailaja and senior bureaucrats had visited the crash site on August 8. Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri and junior foreign minister V Muraleedharan had also visited the crash site and held meetings.
"At the airport, I hardly had any direct contact with the officials concerned. However, I have been in self-isolation since I returned to Delhi, primarily because I also visited Munnar, the area affected by landslide and there social distancing was not possible," Mr Muraleedharan told NDTV.
The Chief Minister and eight others have gone into self-quarantine. The others include EP Jayarajan, KK Shailaja, VS Sunilkumar, Ramachandran Kadannappalli, AK Saseendran, TP Ramakrishnan, Vishwas Mehta and Loknath Behra. The Local Self Government Minister AC Moideen and Minorities Welfare Minister KT Jaleel were already present in the area.
All on board the crashed aircraft were evacuated after a nearly three-hour operation. Eighteen people including both the pilots died in the crash and more than 150 were injured. All survivors were admitted to various hospitals and were also tested for COVID-19.