Coronavirus: 9 return from Maharashtra, test positive; 1 dies in Deoria

LUCKNOW/GORAKHPUR: Migrants coming from other states emerged as new challenge for health officials as seven of them testes positive in Basti. In another case, one of the four people who came to Mumbai in a hired ambulance on April 29, died while two tested positive.
According to Basti district administration, 13 people had come from MP in government buses on April 28 and had been kept at a quarantine centre.They had started from Maharashtra and stranded in MP.
On Wednesday, they brought to to Basti via Jhansi by a government bus and were quarantined at an inter college in Haraiya area of the district. As per reports which arrived on Saturday, seven out of 13 were found to be positive.
All the seven Covid positive patients are labourers and are undergoing treatment at L1 Hospital in Munderwa, the DM said.
The four who reached Deoria had hired an ambulance from Mumbai to evade checking and reached Deoria on April 29 flouting lockdown norms. They reached home in two days travelling almost round-the-clock, but one of them Kedar Jaiswal died the next day.
Two others tested positive for novel coronavirus infection while the fourth was negative. All the four were residents of Farenda village under Tarkulwan police station area in Deoria.
SHO, Tarkulwan, Pradeep Sharma, said the incident came to light on April 30 when policemen spotted villagers taking out funeral procession to the banks of Gandak river on outskirts of the village.
The police team informed their senior officers after which a police team reached the village and found that four migrants, including Kedar, had returned from Mumbai the day before.
“A health team reached the spot and took samples of the three migrants who had returned,” said Deoria district magistrate Amit Kishore.
The samples of 36 persons who took part in Kedar’s funeral were taken along with those of the families of the four migrants, the DM added.
On questioning, the trio told police that Kedar, who worked in a saree factory, was unwell so they hired an ambulance for Rs 20,000 to reach Deoria, said Kishore.
“When we got reports of the three migrants one aged 35, and the second aged 45 tested positive, while the third is negative,” he added.
The families of all the four have been quarantined while the whole village and its adjoining area were sanitised.
As many as 50 samples of others have been sent to BRD medical college in Gorakhpur, the DM said.