(Trinidad Express) A 63-year-old Trinidad and Tobago national tested positive for Covid-19 virus prior to boarding the aircraft in Venezuela to return home.
The Express learnt the woman and two family members had shared a room in Margarita but the other relatives tested negative.
The woman is in the high-risk category as she suffers with hypertension and diabetes.
Relatives worried
Immediately after the woman was tested positive she was removed from the group and placed in an isolated area.
She was then put in full personal protective equipment (PPE) and seated at the rear of the aircraft.
All 29 people from the Trinidad and Tobago contingent were tested by Venezuelan authorities before the aircraft departed Margarita.
The exercise took a few hours and wrapped up by 1.30 p.m.
Sources told the Express the woman and her relatives were in a panic anticipating she would not have been allowed to return to Trinidad as there was no way she could remain in Venezuela by herself with no support.
There was relief, however, when she was allowed to board the aircraft.
The aircraft then departed Margarita island for Caracas, where it was scheduled to pick up five Trinidad and Tobago nationals.
The aircraft would stay one hour in Caracas before departing for Trinidad with an expected arrival time of 7.30 p.m.
The group will immediately be taken to the Sangre Grande step-down facility, where they will be quarantined for 14 days and tested again for Covid-19.
The woman will likely be taken to the Couva Hospital.
The aircraft was privately chartered by the Trinidad and Tobago nationals.
The plane will not leave Trinidad empty as some 115 Venezuelan nationals, organised by the Venezuelan Embassy in Trinidad, will return to their homeland.
