A medical worker collects a sample to test for Covid-19 (Express Photo: Abhinav Saha)A 24-year-old woman from the Netherlands who was arrested on Sunday for stealing a car and then getting into a road mishap has tested positive for Covid-19, police said on Tuesday. The police personnel who came in contact with her have been isolated and are being tested for Covid-19.
According to police, the woman had stolen the vehicle, a jeep, from Patan in Satara on Sunday afternoon and then drove to Karad, 35 kilometres away.
According to police, she drove rashly on the road and had brushes with multiple vehicles. In Karad, she rammed the jeep into a WagonR car parked on the roadside in Vijaynagar, police said. She was detained by the police after resisting and later placed under arrest. She subsequently underwent a medical examination as part of routine procedure after an arrest.
A senior official from Satara district police said, “Some police personnel who have come in contact with the woman at the time of her arrest, those who completed the arrested formalities and a senior officer who questioned her have been isolated and have undergone Covid-19 test.”
Police are investigating what the the woman was doing in Patan and why she allegedly stole the jeep. Before stealing the jeep, she had also stolen a two-wheeler and later abandoned it after it ran out of fuel, police said.
According to police, the woman has told them that she resides in Pune. She is in India on a tourist visa, which will expire in the last week of December, police said.