An official statement from Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences said: “the sixth report of Kanika Kapoor came negative and she has been discharged”. According to Health Ministry protocol, the viral load in any coronavirus positive patient is assessed regularly till it tests negative for two consecutive times.
In all Kanika was tested for six times since her admission to SGPGI quarantine ward. Of these, the first two reports tested positive while the third was inconclusive. The fourth report was positive but the fifth report, dated April 4, turned negative.
Kanika became the centre of a controversy reportedly for having ignored the instructions to stay home quarantined for a period of 14 days given upon her arrival from London to Mumbai on March 9. Instead of staying in Mumbai, she came to her parent’s place in Lucknow and attended several social gatherings.
Huge panic was created as the list of her suspects included UP’s health minister Jai Pratap Singh who later on was found to be negative to the infection. More than 150 persons in Lucknow and Kanpur came under scanner of the health authorities as contacts of Kanika and probable suspects of the disease.
A five star hotel in the city was also closed down as Kanika had visited the place to meet her friends several times. The Lucknow district administration even lodged an FIR against Kanika under relevant sections of the epidemic act.
-TOI
