This story is from April 26, 2020

Coronavirus scare for Buxar village’s ‘khaini’ addicts

Coronavirus scare for Buxar village’s ‘khaini’ addicts
Representative Image
PATNA: Ever since the news spread of a grocer and a washerman of a Buxar village testing positive for Covid-19 after sharing khaini (raw unsmoked tobacco) with a suspected corona positive person, it has sent a shockwave among the villagers as this local intoxicant is more a “community experience” than an individual guilty pleasure.
In Bihar, ‘khaini’ is an icebreaker.
It can spawn friendships, even among strangers, while travelling on a train or bus. And, unlike paan or cigarette, one rarely says no to someone asking for a pinch of it. It’s virtually bad manners to refuse to share your khaini!
So when it turned out that two neighbours have tested positive for coronavirus after sharing khaini with a coronavirus suspect, who was then unaware of his infection, it naturally shocked everyone. While the two neighbours have vowed to get rid of their addiction, others are now wary of sharing the lime-tobacco mixture. “Ever since we have heard of this case, we have become careful about sharing khaini. This is something that is offered to anyone who takes it and we take it if anyone offers it. But now we have to be careful since this virus is catching everyone,” said a villager who knows the duo but did not want to be reveal his name.
Buxar district magistrate Aman Samir confirmed that the duo indeed contracted the virus due to their addiction.
“The two of them in their late 30s revealed to the members of the medical team that they may have got infected as they used to share khaini and play cards with the son in-law of a 67-year-old man, who had tested positive. The old man along with his son-in-law were detected positive after they returned from a religious congregation at Asansol in West Bengal,” Samir said.
Altogether 20 positive cases of Covid-19 have been reported in Buxar so far. Out of them, 15 are from one particular extended family, who reside in a densely populated locality, Naya Bhojpur. All of them have been kept under observation of a medical team at an isolated centre in Buxar, he added.

“Initially, a 35-year-old youth and a 67-year-old man from the locality were detected positive for coronavirus. Subsequently, the deadly virus infected the old man’s daughter and 30-year-old son-in-law, who later transmitted it to other members of the extended family as well as neighbours,” the DM said.
The Buxar medical team has so far collected samples of around 100 inhabitants of the locality, which has been declared a red zone following a spike in positive cases in the past one week. “We are taking all precautionary measures and the affected locality is being sanitized,” the DM told TOI over phone.
In Gaya, a shop dealing in khaini was closed and an FIR was lodged against the shopkeeper Ashok Kumar. The station house officer (SHO) of Rampur police station Prashant Kumar said that raids were on to nab the accused, who has been charged with violating lockdown norms.
Notably, spitting in public place after having khaini or gutka will invite a six-month jail term or Rs.200 as fine in the state.
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