Screening for novel coronavirus infection among the 15 students who returned from China early Saturday to Kochi yielded negative results. They were sent home by 2 a.m. on Saturday after they underwent tests at the Government Medical College, Kalamassery.
Detailed test results from the virology lab in Alappuzha are expected in two days, said a communication from the medical college authorities here. The students will be in isolation at their houses for 28 days.
“She is recovering from fatigue but is happy and healthy,” said the husband of a young doctor hailing from Kochi and doing her house surgency at Dali University in China’s Yunnan province.
Trapped in airport
She was among the 15 students who reached Kerala via Bangkok after being trapped in the Kunming international airport for 24 hours.
Her husband said she and her friends were short of food, electricity, and money. They had initially booked tickets to Singapore, but were not allowed to board the plane from the Kunming airport. They lost the money too with the airline refusing a refund. Money had to be pooled again, soliciting the help of friends and relatives over long-distance telephone calls. Then, under the initiative of the Indian embassy in China, tickets on the Air Asia flight that brought them to Kochi were booked.
He said there were initially 21 students, some of whom had flown to Singapore. They appeared to have been held up there.
The team of doctors and other medical professionals in the Kochi medical were quick to screen the 15 students who landed at Nedumbassery. The students were transported in six ambulances to the medical college. They were brought in through a separate entry to the isolation ward and received by a team of 60 medical staff in protection suit while CCTVs monitored their moves. Samples from the students were collected in an hour and sent to the Alappuzha lab. The operation moved like clockwork after a message was received at the control room in district collectorate at 1 p.m. that the students would land in Kochi. Two meetings were convened at 8.45 p.m. and 10.30 p.m. to coordinate proceedings. A mock drill was held at 11 p.m. The flight landed at 1 a.m. Their baggage too was sterilized.
