Authorities seek contacts of Covid-19 infected passengers off a flight to Sofia

The Bulgarian authorities are searching for more than 90 people from a flight from Amsterdam to Sofia, which arrived on April 26. A family infected with coronavirus travelled on that flight – a mother, a son and a daughter from the village of Krivo Pole, Haskovo district, Southern Bulgaria.

The national coronavirus task force recommends that all passengers from this flight should contact the regional health inspectorates in order to be tested.

A 39 year old woman who came back infected from the Netherlands sought medical help as soon as she arrived at Sofia airport, but it was denied.

The young woman travelled from the Netherlands with her son and daughter. The boy was diagnosed with Covid-19.

The signal that the young woman was going back to her birth town sick was reported to the emergency line by her mother, who called 112 because she was afraid her daughter might bring the contagion to the village.

Snezhana Stefanova, mother of the woman who arrived from Amsterdam: The crew of the aircraft, on which the family arrived in Bulgaria, was also aware of the woman's poor health, as they gave first aid during the flight. But in the end, this was not enough to be admitted for treatment as soon as she arrived in Sofia.

So the family got a taxi from Sofia to the bus station in Haskovo, from where the family was taken in an ambulance to hospital.

The mother and her 15 year old son were diagnosed with Covid-19. The boy is in good condition, but his mother is on the verge of intubation, the hospital in Haskovo said.

The mother was already infected with the virus before she arrived from the Netherlands.

The family has worked in a flower factory near the Hague for the recent 4 years. A week ago, the 39 year old woman had the first symptoms of the coronavirus infection. For two days she went on working, but on the third day her health deteriorated and she went to hospital in the Hague, he daughter explained.

The hospital refused admission and gave a telephone number of a doctor for the woman to call after she gets back to the boarding house where they lived. Due to language barrier however, she decided that instead of seeking medical help over the telephone, she would find treatment in Bulgaria and decided to travel.

So on April 26, the family got on the aircraft in Amsterdam and arrived in Sofia 14.20.

During the flight, the woman felt sick. She was put on an oxygen mask. Upon arrival in Bulgaria, she told the border authorities that she was ill and was looking for a way to get to a hospital in Sofia. But assistance was also denied. So the family decided to get a taxi to Haskovo. According to the grandmother's signal, the family was transported to the hospital from the bus station.

With the same flight from Amsterdam, in a different taxi, another family, this time from the village of Bryagovo, arrived. However, they did not show symptoms and were therefore not hospitalized but placed under home quarantine.

The 16-year-old daughter of the sick woman from Krivo Pole is also under quarantine. The girl is isolated in the family house. So far, she has not had any symptoms.

Today, the Mayor of Krivo Pole, Andrei Gadzhev, is worried that 13 more people who work in the flower fields in the Netherlands have asked to return. A group of 13 people have already returned to the village, six of them still under home quarantine. Most abide by mandatory isolation, but there have also been cases where quarantined were discovered fishing, the mayor said.

The mayor is grateful to the mother of the woman diagnosed with Covid-19 for showing reason and for not allowing her family to come by taxi to the village.

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