Bengaluru, Dec. 3: A day after Karnataka health minister gave clean chit to the 66-year-old traveller from South Africa who tested Omicron positive, Karnataka revenue minister, R. Ashok on Friday said that the state has directed Bengaluru civic officials to register a police complaint and investigate the validity of a negative Covid test report provided to a South African traveller.
The South African national is among the first two persons in India whose Covid samples have indicated the presence of the Omicron variant of the virus. Another is a 46-year old medical practitioner, working in a government hospital and has no travel history. Five of the medical practitioner’s contacts have tested positive for Covid and their samples are undergoing genome sequencing.
Hours after Union government announced the detection of two cases of the new Omicron variant of Covid in India, that were traced to Karnataka on Thursday, health minister Dr K. Sudhakar had stated that there was no need order a probe into the validity of Covid negative test report to this South African traveller. “If the private lab had given him a wrong report, all of his primary and secondary contacts have tested negative, which in itself is proof that he may not have produced a fake negative report to travel abroad, therefore, there is no need to order any probe into his reports per se,” he had said.
Disclosing details further, Dr Sudhakar had stated that as many as 24 of his (South African) primary, and 240 secondary contacts were tested and found to be negative, but they are all still under surveillance.
Contradicting this on Friday, Mr Ashoka who is also vice-chairman of Karnataka State Disaster Management Authority (KSDMA), said that the state has issued directions to the Bengaluru Civic body (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike -BBMP) Commissioner to register a police complaint to investigate how the traveller from South Africa obtained a Covid test report that allowed him to leave the country.
He added that the 66-year-old traveller from South Africa left India within seven days of testing positive by obtaining a negative Covid test report from a private lab.
The minister said that the traveller, who arrived in Bengaluru on November 20, tested positive at the airport and stayed at a five-star hotel in central Bengaluru and on November 23, he purportedly obtained a negative Covid test report from a private lab which allowed him to return to South Africa, via Dubai, on November 27.
Mr Ashoka said that there has been a mishandling of the situation. “’Two reports – one positive and one negative – is doubtful. Therefore, the lab must be investigated. Hence, we have asked the police commissioner to investigate immediately in coordination with the health department. We want an impartial investigation to find out if the lab had reported the findings of the test in a correct manner or not,” he said.
