Three of the six people who travelled from Mumbai with the body of a 56-year-old man have tested coronavirus positive in Karnataka’s Mandya district.
The man, an auto-rickshaw driver in Mumbai, had died of cardiac arrest in Mumbai. After taking permission from the authorities in Maharashtra, six relatives of the man travelled to their native district in an ambulance.
After the man’s cremation, authorities in Mandya subjected them to the coronavirus test; three tested positive. However, the wife of the man turned out to be negative.
The family had given a lift to a woman and her son on their way to Mandya; she also tested positive.
According to reports, the man’s son, who works at a private bank, is believed to have contracted the virus first.
With the addition, Mandya’s number of coronavirus cases have shot up from 10 to 14. All six have been quarantined.
The local administration has blamed authorities in Mumbai for the blame.
“It’s a lapse on part of the Mumbai administration. Why did they give permission to six people to accompany the body in the ambulance, that too from a containment zone without testing them,” said Dr MV Venkatesh, the Deputy Commissioner of Mandya.
Former Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswami, meanwhile, has said that it was the failure of the Mandya administration.
Mumbai is the biggest epicentre of the disease in the country. Out of 11,506 coronavirus patients in the state, 7,812 are from the city.
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