10 People Engaged in Air Crash Rescue Operations Test Covid Positive

KOZHIKODE:
As many as 10 people who were engaged in the Karipur air crash rescue operations, have tested positive for Covid-19, officials said on Tuesday.

Air India Express flight IX 1344 from Dubai to Calicut with 191 passengers crashed after overshooting the runway at Karipur airport on August 7. According to health officials, six of the rescue workers came from Nettirepu, while four are from Kondotty.

The health authorities soon after the rescue and relief operations sent an advisory to all those who were directly engaged in the work, to go into self isolation. There were 150 people who were advised to go into self isolation.

Malappuram Collector K. Gopalakrishnan and 21 of his staff tested Covid positive last week besides a police ASP, forcing Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and seven of his Cabinet colleagues who arrived at the accident site on August 8, to go into isolation. However, all of them tested Covid negative.

The toll in the aircraft crash increased to 19 on Sunday night when a 68-year-old person under treatment for broken bones suffered a cardiac arrest. There are 59 more survivors from the ill-fated aircraft still under treatment in various hospitals. The condition of seven is stated to be serious while one of them is on ventilator support.