Bengaluru Police Registers Complaint Against Omicron-infected Foreigner, 5-star Hotel for Flouting Norms

A police complaint has been filed under the Karnataka Epidemic Diseases Act, 2020 in Bengaluru against a 66-year-old South African national, who is infected with the Omicron variant of Covid-19, for fleeing from the country ahead of the end of his mandatory 14-day quarantine period. Moreover, a private five-star hotel where the person was staying and quarantined has also been named in the FIR.

According to the complaint filed by Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) health officer Dr Naveen Kumar on Sunday at the High Grounds police station in central Bengaluru, the person, who is an employee of a South African pharma firm, flouted the norms of the Epidemic Diseases Act. The complaint has also been registered against the hotel for allowing the infected foreigner to leave the premises despite his quarantine orders.

The South African national landed in Bengaluru on November 20 and tested positive after his sample was collected at the airport on arrival. He had travelled with a negative report from South Africa via Dubai. According to BBMP commissioner Gaurav Gupta, a UPHC doctor visited the hotel for physical triage and found him asymptomatic. He was advised to self-isolate at the hotel.

On November 22, his test samples were collected and sent for genomic sequencing through BBMP. The next day, on November 23, the patient took a self-investigation at a private lab and the report came negative, following which he left for Dubai on November 27.

BBMP said he had 24 primary contacts and 240 secondary contacts, and all of them have tested negative.

“When it was enquired at the hotel as to how the traveler was allowed to leave it was reported that he had produced a test report from S R Laboratory,” said the complaint as quoted by The Indian Express.

Dr Kumar has alleged that the South African national and the hotel management are “responsible for the spread of an epidemic disease among the public” and said that legal action must be taken against them.

(with inputs from PTI)

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