45 passengers who returned from UK untraceable in Bihar

New Delhi, Jan 01: As many as 45 of the 226 air passengers who returned to Bihar from the UK between November 21 and December 21 remain untraceable, an official has stated.

A number of 101 of the 181 passengers traced so far have tested negative for coronavirus, the official added. Efforts are underway to test the remaining UK returnees who have been traced so far.

"Samples of 101 passengers were collected and sent for RT-PCR test. Sample collection of rest of the traced passengers is under process. None of the samples has tested positive till now," said Khalid Arshad, administrative officer of the state health society, Bihar.

"It is not easy to trace all of them (passengers who came from UK). We have sent the name, contact number and address of passengers, according to the list provided by the MoCA, to our medical officers in-charge of community health centres (CHCs) to track them and collect their swab samples. Our officials are finding it difficult to trace them in some cases as all of them do not reside at the address provided to us," said Dr Vibha Kumari Singh, Patna's civil surgeon.

Bihar health department had asked its functionaries to trace and collect samples of all such passengers by December 30 and requested the RMRIMS to expedite their testing through RT-PCR method.

The health department has already requested all UK returnees to isolate themselves and contact their nearest government health facility for the RT-PCR test.