Kerala: Train passenger tests positive for Covid-19, deboarded and sent to hospital

KOCHI: A 29-year-old man, who tested positive for coronavirus, was admitted to the government medical college hospital in Kochi on Friday after he was deboarded from the train he was travelling from Kozhikode.


The coach of the Kozhikode-Thiruvananthapuram Jan Shatabdi Express in which he was travelling was disinfected and sealed after accommodating his over 20 co-passengers to another coach when the train reached Ernakulam North railway station, a railway official said.

The train which reached the station at 2pm left for Thiruvananthapuram an hour later, he said.

Ernakulam district authorities have identified all his co-passengers in the D-3 coach as his primary contacts. They have been asked to go into home quarantine, officials said.

The man, who boarded the train from Kozhikode, came to know that he was a carrier of the virus when he got a call from Kozhikode medical authorities who tested his swabs taken earlier following his primary contact with a Covid-19 patient, officials said.

The Kozhikode district medical authorities immediately alerted their counterparts and railway officials when the man informed them that the Thiruvananthapuram-bound Jan Shatabdi Express has already reached Thrissur.

But by the time the train had left Thrissur.

Health authorities in Ernakulam district and railway officials, who were alerted, made all preparations to handle the situation, they said.

The patient was taken to the government medical college hospital when the train reached North Railway station.

Due to some personal emergency, he wanted to go to Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu and booked the train ticket to travel up to Thiruvananthapuram before getting his Covid-19 test results, they said.

Railway officials said the passenger was subjected to thermal screening at Kozhikode station when he reached there to board the train.