SHILLONG: Police have started an inquiry into alleged lapses which led to a city-based doctor testing positive for coronavirus at a time when the city has been under curfew and lockdown.
A senior police official said on Tuesday that it has become necessary for the police to probe the matter as certain questions have been raised on the case.
Sources said that there is no clarity as to who has infected the doctor though the state government had said that the family has a history of travel.
According to the sources, the doctor had gone to the airport to receive his son-in law, a pilot who had come from New York.
Police are looking into the aspect of what prevented the doctor’s son-in-law, who returned from abroad on March 24, to opt for quarantine in New Delhi instead of coming to Meghalaya.
Even before March 24, the state government had taken steps to monitor people who were coming to Meghalaya.
When asked during the on-line press briefing as to who had infected the doctor, the Commissioner and Secretary of Health department, Sampath Kumar, did not give any clear-cut reply other than stating that the government was trying to find out.
Subsequent WhatsApp queries to Kumar on whether the son-in-law was the source to infect the doctor or any others from within or outside the state went unanswered.
A police official said that as certain aspersions have been cast on the doctor, a probe into the matter was necessary.
“We want to go to the bottom of the case and the truth will have to be established”, the official added.
Social media was abuzz with statements blaming the doctor for the total curfew in the state for 48 hours from Tuesday.
Curiously, the state government had already informed the Centre that the son-in-law of the doctor was a pilot with Air India, who travelled from New York to Delhi on March 16.
The government in a letter to the Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Preeti Sudan, said that on March 17, he travelled from Delhi to Imphal and on March 20, he travelled from Imphal to Delhi and on March 24, he travelled from Delhi to Shillong.
The letter also said the son-in-law of the doctor was placed under home quarantine in Shillong after registering himself with the government from March 24 to April 7.
However, the letter does not say whether the son-in-law tested positive or negative for COVID-19.
Stating that the State Surveillance Team had visited him during the quarantine period, the letter added that the state government would submit a detailed report to the Centre at the earliest.
According to the letter, the state is taking all containment measures, including contact tracing and restricting all movement of people as per containment protocol of the ministry.
“Since the patient is a healthcare professional, the state is establishing all primary and secondary contacts for preventing any further spread of the disease,” the letter said.
11 contacts traced in Manipur
Since the son-in-law of the doctor visited Manipur, the Manipur government said that eleven close contacts of the Air India pilot, who spent three nights from March 17 to 19 at Imphal after returning from New York, have been traced on Tuesday.
“Although asymptomatic, they are under surveillance now and their samples will be tested at VRDL, RIMS”, the Manipur government said.
