A Dubai-returned man and 11 of his family members have tested coronavirus positive in Madhya Pradesh’s Morena district, days after he organised a feast for 1,500 people in the honour of his dead mother. The local authorities have sealed the entire colony where the function took place to prevent it from becoming a new COVID-19 hotspot in the state.
The man, identified as Suresh, works as a waiter in Dubai. He came to Morena on March 17 and organised the ceremony on March 20. Around 1,500 people took part in the funeral function and ate at the feast.
Suresh developed coronavirus symptoms on March 25, but he visited a hospital four days later. He and his wife were put in quarantine, and they tested positive on Thursday.
Later the authorities tested 23 of his close relatives out of which 10 are positive.
“We sent 23 samples of the contacts of the two positive patients and received the reports on Friday. Out of them 10, including eight women, have tested positive for the virus. All 12 patients have now been quarantined at the hospital, while those who tested negative have been put under 14 days isolation at their houses in different parts of Morena district,” Morena’s Chief Medical Officer Dr RC Bandil said.The man was tested in Dubai before his arrival but had no symptoms. He says his wife was ill two days before coming to Morena.
2,547 people have contracted the virus in India so far, with 62 deaths. The number of cases in Madhya Pradesh is 154.
This comes after a mosque at Delhi’s Nizamuddin – where the Islamic sect Tablighi Jamaat organised weeks-long event last month – emerged as the largest cluster reported in India, with over 950 coronavirus cases.
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