Vigilant Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation officers on the morning of September 7 stopped a covid-positive child from catching a flight from Ahmedabad airport to London. Corporation officials did not sought police assistance for this and have avoided filing a police complaint. Fortunately, the child and the mother were intercepted before the plane took off, as once departed, authorities would have been left with no other choice than to report it to London Heathrow Airport authorities, where it could have been considered a criminal offense.
In the background of this case, a woman from Ahmedabad and her child were scheduled to go to London on September 7 and their covid test was carried out in a private lab on September 5, in which the child reported positive on September 6. Even after the report came negative on 7th September, he cannot escape quarantine. According to the guideline of Covid protocol for foreign travel, once the report is positive, the person is required to be quarantined for complete 14 days even if the new report is negative during these 14 days.
According to the standard operating procedure of the municipal system regarding covid, private laboratories must submit the details of the positive report during the day by 5 pm every day, which is then sent for follow-up according to the zone. According to the information received on the evening of the 6th, the municipal authorities contacted the airport authorities and prevented the mother and son from boarding the flight and prevented the potential danger to other tourists. In a way, even the mother and son were saved from the troubles that would have befallen them if they had reached London Airport in such condition.
The golden border in this incident is that though having a bad name for lethargy, the government departments are surely functioning.
