KATHMANDU, March 25: A day after a Nepali student returning from France via Qatar tested positive for the novel coronavirus , immigration authorities and the police have began a search operation to track down the other 158 passengers who were on the same plane with her and the persons they met or came into contact with after landing in Nepal.
Immigration officials have provided police the flight details of the passengers on the plane. Based on passport photocopies of fellow passengers of the 19-year-old student, police have identified some of the passengers and are trying to reach out to them to isolate them from other people.
Immigration officials have provided passport details, mainly names and addresses, of the passengers to the district administration offices and district police office concerned. Police have started to track them down .
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District admiration offices have mobilized police to the respective localities of the passengers to separate them from family members before taking them to medical facilities for checkups, police and immigration officials said.
“We have already provided police passport photocopies of the passengers who landed in Kathmandu on the same flight as the student . District administration offices have started to track them down,” said Sagar Acharya, chief immigration officer at Tribhuvan International Airport.
Three Qatar Airways flights landed at TIA on March 17, the day the student returning from France landed . Health officials confirmed only on Monday that the student tested positive for the coronavirus .
“The details provided by the immigration office show that 158 passengers arrived in Nepal on flight QR652 . We have identified 125 of them. Efforts are underway to identify the remaining passengers,” said police spokesperson Shailesh Thapa Chhetri.
Local governments are also being urged to assist in tracking down the passengers, asking around if there was anyone in their localities arriving in Nepal from Qatar . The Department of Immigration has not disclosed the identities of the passengers . But a local of Baglung has said he was on the same plane.
Following this disclosure local police and health professionals are trying to reach that person.
Both France and Qatar are coronavirus-affected countries. Fears are rife that the virus could spread because of failure to track down the passengers on time and send them into quarantine.
Health Ministry officials are preparing to check the condition of the identified passengers and others they came into contact with.
