Karnataka government orders inquiry into Omicron-positive South African's mysterious RT-PCR report

A day after Bengaluru reported India's first two cases of the Omicron variant of Covid-19, controversy erupted over the ‘hush-hush’ departure of the first patient – a 66-year-old South African traveller – and mysterious RT-PCR reports that he managed to get without stepping out of quarantine.

Acknowledging lapses on the parts of local administration, the state government on Friday ordered an inquiry into the incident and took up a case at the High Ground police station. Soon after the high-level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Revenue minister R Ashoka told media persons that Bengaluru City Police Commissioner Kamal Pant has been directed to monitor the investigation and submit a detailed report pertaining to the case.

Sources in the government revealed that the 66-year-old South African traveller, a top official from a Johannesburg-based pharmaceutical major landed in Bengaluru on November 20 with a negative RT-PCR report. However, his swab samples taken at the airport upon arrival tested positive for Covid-19. “Subsequently, the Bengaluru Urban health officials triaged the patient at a star hotel in Vasanth Nagar and found him to be asymptomatic. His samples were collected again on November 22 for genomic sequencing,” an official said.

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However, in the meantime, the traveller while under isolation at the star hotel managed to self investigate in consultation with a private lab and obtained a negative RT-PCR report and reportedly visited a subsidiary firm in Bommasanadra to attend a board meeting. “It was puzzling to know how a patient under isolation could obtain a negative RT-PCR report without even stepping out of the hotel and in less than three days of testing positive. Nobody had been to his room to collect the swab samples,” explained a BBMP official.

The traveller even as his genomic sequencing reports were awaited by the district administration, had managed to check out of the hotel on November 27 and left for Dubai on the same day. Admitting to missing links in the case, Revenue minister R Ashoka said, “We have taken up a case at the High Ground police station and Commissioner of Police has been directed to investigate the matter and submit a report.”

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