Two foreign passengers test Covid positive at Mumbai airport

Two international passengers were found COVID positive during random sampling at the Mumbai International airport, the Maharashtra health department informed on Wednesday.

Further, according to the health department, both samples have been sent for whole genome sequencing.

Amid the ongoing spike in COVID infections across several countries, the screening of international passengers arriving in Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur airports has been on since December 24.

"All passengers are being thermally scanned and 2 per cent of random samples are being sent for COVID test. All positive samples are being referred for whole genome sequencing (WGS)," read an official statement from Maharashtra health department.

It said that as per instructions from the Centre, an online mock drill of all secondary and tertiary healthcare facilities in the state was accomplished on December 27, as part of the ongoing review of the preparedness of hospitals in the light of the global COVID scenario.

"(As many as) 36 new (COVID) cases were reported in the state today. One COVID death was also reported. The case fatality rate in the state was at 1.82 per cent. Also, 36 patients were discharged today on recovery from Covid-19, taking the total number of recoveries, so far, to 79,88,008. The recovery rate in the state was at 98.17 per cent and, as of today, there are 164 active cases in the state," read a health bulletin issued by the state health department.

Earlier, on Wednesday, the Tamil Nadu health department said two passengers from Dubai tested positive for COVID-19 at Chennai airport.0

"Two passengers who arrived from Dubai tested positive at the Chennai airport today. Both of them hailed from the Alangudi district of Tamil Nadu's Pudukkottai. Their test samples have been sent to state public health laboratory," the state health department said.