Mangaluru : The first Covid -19 case reported in the district, He had arrived here by a flight from Dubai on March 19 has tested positive for COVID -19, according to Dakshina Kannada Deputy Commissioner Sindhu B. Rupesh.

She told reporters here on Sunday that the 22-year-old, a native of Bhaktal in Uttara Kannada, has been quarantined in the Government Wenlock Hospital in the city and is recovering now. It is the first positive case reported in Dakshina Kannada.

The flight had landed at 5.45 p.m. on that day and there were 165 passengers in it who are being contacted now. All of them are not from Dakshina Kannada.

The youth had shown symptoms of COVID-19 during screening at the airport on Thursday last and hence, was shifted to the Wenlock Hospital in an ambulance for observation. His throat swabs have been sent for testing.

The Deputy Commissioner said that five people are currently under observation in the district. She said that, at present, about 2,000 people are under home quarantine in Dakshina Kannada. The district administration is monitoring their health condition daily.

To a question on reports that a person who was tested positive for COVID-19 in Kasaragod of Kerala had donated blood in Mangaluru before knowing that he was positive, the Deputy Commissioner said that it will be ascertained only after getting the official flow chart of the patient from the Kasaragod administration. “We have asked for the flow chart from Kasaragod through the official channel,” she said.