Our Correspondent
Kohima, April 17 (EMN): Everything seemed fine for the passengers of Air India Kolkata-Dimapur flight on March 24 after having completed 14 days of mandatory home quarantine but life took a different turn when the Health minister of Assam announced on April 12 night that a person on board the same flight had been tested positive for the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) at Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH).
It was already 19 days since Air India flight No. 709 landed in Dimapur, but the passengers were sent into frenzy after a co-passenger from Dimapur was tested coronavirus-positive in Guwahati. Most of them were shocked to hear the news.
Some of the passengers shared an account of their experience aftermath the late night announcement to Eastern Mirror.
A 20-year-old girl, who is currently undergoing her second round of self-isolation in Nagaland state’s quarantine centre at Meriema in Kohima, termed the news as “totally shocking”.
The girl, who works in Kolkata, told this newspaper over the phone that she was left stunned when her aunt broke the news of one of her co-passengers being tested positive for the virus. A few days had passed since she completed home quarantine.
"When my aunt confirmed my flight number, I was totally shocked...I became totally fresh from my sleep," said the girl who woke up to see her aunt’s text message containing travel history of the patient on her phone.
"I was just recalling my journey; how I came from that flight. Then, I just Googled the distance of the seat and how far I was seated from him (patient). I was quite far from him because I was in 22A and he was in 5B."
When asked about the screening facility at the airports, she said that the screening devices might not be "helpful". "The devices, with which they are screening people, are not helpful because it's just testing our temperature and I don't think any infected person will be having fever or cough the whole time," she opined.
Another 22-year-old passenger, who studies in Hyderabad, underwent a similar mental trauma on learning the news via social media.
"I got the news through WhatsApp and I was devastated, and I couldn't sleep that night," the student said. He added that he then received a call from the authority asking him to come to Naga Hospital Authority Kohima (NHAK), now a Covid-19 hospital, by 9:30 am on the same day for the check-up.
"I just felt like nothing will happen to me because it has already been six days after I self quarantined at home for 14 days," said another 23-year-old student, who came from Dehradun.
He was on board the same flight as the patient, along with two of his sisters who are taking coaching classes in Delhi. All the three siblings have been admitted to the government quarantine centre at Meriema.
"If I was positive, I should be showing some signs but there was nothing like that. We just got the news and for our self declaration, we just went to Naga Hospital (NHAK) for confirmation, where we were told to be quarantined on the day itself,” he said.
Even as the passengers of Air India flight No. 709 on March 24 have to go through another ordeal, they and their families are being stigmatised and harassed. Some of them complained that they have been receiving random calls from unknown numbers after their names and travel itinerary went viral on social media.
They claimed that their parents and family members were being harassed by their colony members after learning about their travel history. One of them said that his parents were threatened not to buy essential commodities from the shops in their colony even after results of their sample tests came out negative.
They wondered if those responsible for leaking their information should be held accountable for the problems they are facing now. They also wondered why people didn’t circulate the negative results of their sample tests like they did about their personal information.