Five family members of a deceased coronavirus patient, who probably contracted the infection at Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh, have now been tested positive for the pathogen, reports Amar Ujala.
The deceased person was from Islamnagar in Khatauli, Muzaffarnagar. The state authorities have now started searching for the people who had defied the lockdown and attended the funeral of the deceased.
The family had allegedly disregarded the protocol and washed the body of the deceased and thereafter buried it as per their customs. Several people have reportedly attended the funeral.
Deceased died two days after returning from Delhi
According to the report, the deceased had returned from Delhi on April 12. He had allegedly visited the Shaheen Bagh area multiple times during his stay in Delhi. He died on April 14 after being in self-quarantine for two days. It is being alleged that the state authority neglected to conduct tests. Despite the quarantine, they did not even know that the patient had died on April 14. It is only after the family members have been tested positive, have the district administration and the officers of the health department have sprung to action, said the report in Amar Ujala.
UP govt launches man-hunt
The administration has now launched a man-hunt and is in the lookout for all those who attended the funeral of the deceased. Samples are being collected. With the positive report of the deceased’s sister on Saturday and brother on Sunday, it has been confirmed that the person who returned from Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh did die of the infection caused by the deadly Wuhan Coronavirus. Until now, five people from this family have been found infected, including the deceased’s mother, and two children. However, the deceased’s wife has not been tested yet, as she has been observing Roza during Ramzan.
Shaheen Bagh sealed off
The Shaheen Bagh area of South Delhi which saw massive sit-in protests against the CAA and NRC for months had been sealed off after three new positive cases of Wuhan coronavirus were detected in that area on April 17. As the coronavirus cases keep rising in Delhi, more hotspots are being identified as containment zones. The anti-CAA protest sites were cleared with bulldozers on March 24 after the nation-wide lockdown was announced.
Notably, Islamnagar in Muzaffarnagar has also been declared as one of the hotspots by the Uttar Pradesh government, taking the total number of hotspots in the state to 180 in 40 of the total 75 districts. The Wuhan coronavirus pandemic was first confirmed in Uttar Pradesh on 5 March 2020, with the first positive case in Ghaziabad. Until now, Uttar Pradesh has reported a total of 1,955 confirmed cases with 31 succumbing to the infection
