Meerut: Five members of one family have tested positive for COVID-19 in western Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut in the last 24 hours. Initially, a 50-year-old man from Bulandshahr staying in Meerut had tested positive on Friday, reported the Times of India. On Saturday, his wife and three of his brother-in-laws tested positive.
The man had travelled from Amravati in Maharashtra to Meerut in two trains – the Amrati Jabalpur Superfast Express and the Chattisgarh Express. He reached Meerut on March 19.
The local administration tested four of his immediate contacts in the family on Saturday and all four tested positive for COVID-19.
Now the administration has identified 50 other contacts who have been put under isolation in two hospitals in Meerut. They are being tested and the results are expected to arrive tomorrow.
According to the chief medical officer Raj Kumar, the man stayed in three different homes of his relatives in Meerut, attended a wedding function, offered namaz in a mosque and saw private doctors once he started developing symptoms. He was admitted to the Lala Lajpat Rai Memorial medical college when he experienced breathing difficulties on Friday.
The administration has begun going door to door within a three kilometre radius of the homes where the man had stayed and will be testing those who show symptoms of COVID-19. The areas will also be sanitised using disinfectants.
“This man could have infected a lot of people in the train, at the wedding and in the mosque. It was very irresponsible of him to do so. We were doing so well till now and did not have a single case. But now because of this one stupid man we may have a large number of cases. There should be an FIR against this man under the Epidemic diseases act. I will talk to the administration,” Kumar said.
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It remains unclear how the man can be booked given that only those who have travelled from abroad are required to disclose their travel history. The Central government continues to deny that there is community transmission in India.
As of now, all the patients admitted in Meerut are said to be stable. “We are thoroughly prepared and there is no need to worry. Within four days, our team will locate each and every contact of the people who have tested positive,” said Kumar.
The Times of India, however, had reported on Friday that once the test results of the 50-year old came in, healthcare workers – nurses and paramedics – left the isolation ward and refused to work saying that the safety equipment provided to them was not adequate and that the ward was entirely reliant only on doctors who had been provided the safety equipment.
However, the LLRM administration principal has denied this. “Nothing of this sort happened. We have adequate safety equipment for everyone,” R.C. Gupta, principal of LLRM, told The Wire. Gupta also said that the college has 900 hazmat suits and 4,000 masks for medical staff. The Wire has not yet been able to independently verify this claim.