17 of a family test positive for COVID-19 in Hyderabad, officials on alert

A woman in the family who died on April 10, tested positive for the novel coronavirus after her death.

Coronavirus Coronavirus

At least 17 members of a family have tested positive for COVID-19 in Hyderabad, and 24 others have been isolated and kept under quarantine after tests were conducted for the novel coronavirus. According to official sources who TNM spoke to, the 17 people who have tested positive were shifted to Gandhi Hospital late on Monday night. This includes a 10-month-old baby.

The 24 people, some of whom have tested negative, were shifted to the Government Nizamia General Hospital near Charminar for isolation.

The 41 people who were tested in total are all contacts of a woman who was staying in Talab Katta and passed away on April 10 while undergoing treatment at a private hospital for a cardiac-related illness. As she was showing symptoms of COVID-19, her samples had been collected shortly before her death, and they returned positive on Monday.

According to some sources, the coronavirus was undetected in the woman because she was admitted for cardiac issues.

The woman was initially taken to a private hospital in Nampally and later to the Gandhi Hospital, which is the nodal centre for treatment of the coronavirus in the state. However, because her family members said that she had a cardiac problem, the hospital, which is presently only handling COVID-19 cases, did not admit her. From there, she was taken to the King Koti government hospital. After a few hours of treatment, she was shifted to Osmania hospital, where she was admitted for a few hours again. However, as her condition was serious, she was shifted to a private hospital near Purani Haveli where she passed away.

While it is yet to be ascertained as to how she got infected with coronavirus, authorities suspect that she may have come in contact with someone who attended the Tablighi Jamaat meeting in New Delhi last month.

"The family lives in two houses and the entire area was sanitised in the early hours of Tuesday to prevent further infection in the area," a source said.

Authorities are now contemplating sealing off the entire area and declaring it a containment zone.

Meanwhile, a COVID-19 case was also reported in the nearby Moghulpura area after a man experiencing symptoms admitted himself to Gandhi Hospital and tested positive. Four of his family members have been shifted to the Government Nizamia General Hospital and their samples have been collected.

Telangana has reported 592 cases as of Tuesday afternoon, of which Hyderabad has a major chunk of the cases.

With 216 cases still active in Hyderabad on Monday, a worried Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao announced that the city would be divided into 17 'units' to oversee containment measures.

“More cases are getting registered in the Greater Hyderabad area. In Hyderabad, there are more chances of the persons with positive cases quickly spreading it to others,” KCR said, stating that the 17 circles of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) would be considered as 17 'units', with a special officer overseeing COVID-19 operation in each unit.

Read: Rising COVID-19 cases in Hyderabad has KCR worried, city divided into zones