In a shocking incident, 3 people suspected of carrying Wuhan coronavirus, managed to escape from the government quarantine centre in Kolkata late last night, setting alarm bells ringing about the security of the containment centres. A massive manhunt was launched by the Kolkata police this morning after which the three escapees were traced.
#Breaking | 3 people have managed to flee from quarantine centre in Kolkata last night. The police have launched a massive hunt and now have managed to find them.
— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) April 8, 2020
TIMES NOW’s Tamal Saha with more details. pic.twitter.com/6UzPpFAqtk
1 woman and 2 children, all three belonging to the same family fled the quarantine facility at New Town in Kolkata through its rear gate and went to their home about 10 kilometres away from the quarantine centre. They were kept at the NBCC Square in New Town, an apartment complex which has been converted to quarantine centre by the West Bengal government. After absconding from the quarantine facility, the three suspected COVID-19 patients came in contact with 6 other individuals. Now they are also kept under quarantine by the police after coming in contact with suspected coronavirus patient.
An investigation has been launched in this regard to determine as to how these people managed to escape the quarantine facility and how could they travel 10 kilometres to reach their home from the facility. The police are also probing if more people had come in their contact, in which case they will have to be to identified and located and subsequently sent to quarantine.
Escaping patients suspected of being infected with COVID-19 pose a massive threat to the country’s battle against the coronavirus. The immensity of the danger posed by coronavirus victims fleeing quarantine was best encapsulated by the meteoric rise of outbreak in South Korea, enabled by a coronavirus patient who refused to employ social distancing and was believed to have engendered 80 per cent of the total coronavirus cases in the country.
