INDORE: Five Covid-19 positive

broke out of a quarantine facility in Indore, along with three others, on Wednesday morning, triggering a frantic search for them.

Police caught three of them, including two Covid-19 individuals, from a Musafirkhana in the virus epicentre of Ranipura in the evening. But three corona-positive patients and two others are missing, raising the risk of the trio infecting others in a city already reeling from a high corona count.

The eight were among 27 people quarantined in a facility near Choithram Hospital in Indore. Most of them are traders from West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, said officials.

A rapid response team (RRT) and medical mobile unit (MMU) were visiting the quarantine facility at Queen’s Park to conduct a second round of sampling when they found that eight persons were missing.

“Since the 14-day

period was over, and their health was ‘good’, we decided to go for a second round of testing and realized that eight persons, including five who tested positive, were missing. We later came to know that they had jumped a wall in the backyard,” said SDM Shashwat Sharma.

Police were alerted and search teams tracked down three of them. Two of the Covid-19 patients were sent to hospital.

Asked about the risk of the fugitive trio infecting others, Sharma said: “Samples were collected from the quarantined people on March 31. On Wednesday, 10 of them came positive. But they were not showing any symptoms. The threat of spread is less.” In fact, the risk of spread from asymptomatic patients is far higher.

The SDM denied that the absconding people had any connection with

. “They were in Indore to purchase stocks for sales outlets in their native places. We are still investigating their antecedents,” Sharma said.