Vaccinated Sharjah returnee tests +ve a day before marriage at Jabalpur

Nagpur: A 23-year-old man, who returned from Sharjah this Sunday, tested positive during his three-day stay at VNIT quarantine centre on Thursday. He was also vaccinated before reaching the country, officials said. The date of his vaccination is still not known.
As per protocol, Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) is supposed to conduct RT-PCR test on all Sharjah flyers on fifth day of their return and decide on discharge on the basis of result on the seventh day.
However, the man, a resident of Jabalpur, wanted early discharge as his marriage ceremony was scheduled on March 5 in his hometown. Accordingly, the centre officials took his swab on March 3 to discharge him with a Covid negative certificate, which would also be needed for travelling to Madhya Pradesh.
He was among the 95 flyers who landed in Nagpur on February 28. Of these, 77 were exempted as per norms while 18 were asked to isolate themselves in a hotel or VNIT quarantine centre.
Among the 18, NMC quarantined 12 at VNIT while six are isolated in hotels.
Since the man tested positive, VNIT performed RT-PCR test on all the remaining 11 inmates and their results are expected on Friday.
The Jabalpur man will miss his marriage date as he has been admitted to IGGMCH.
Dean Ajay Keoliya told TOI that he has been admitted at ward no. 40. “He has travelling history of Sharjah and Dubai. He was vaccinated as well,” he said.
Civic officials didn’t respond to TOI’s calls.
IGGMCH officials said though a policy decision was taken to conduct genome sequencing on international flyers from certain countries, a call on this case is yet to be taken.
“His viral load is less. The CT value is 30:30 while it must be less then 25 for genome sequencing. We need more RNA for ascertaining the virus strain. It can’t be said whether he was infected in originating nation, on-board flight or at the quarantine centre,” they said.
They said the permission of NCDC Delhi would be needed to send his sample to Pune for establishing the virus strain.
Authorities had allowed resumption of international flights on a weekly basis but the second flight was cancelled due to unexplained reason on February 21.
The 23-year-old is first among 155 flyers so far to land in city since February 21 and also the only among the 41 international travellers quarantined here to test positive.