Local health and administration officials have confirmed that a group of 37 people from Pilibhit district of Uttar Pradesh, who had returned from a religious trip to Mecca in Saudi Arabia on March 19 have recently been quarantined. According to reports, to avoid detection, these people had allegedly removed the quarantine stamp with the help of a foreign perfume.

The health officials got suspicious after the health condition of a woman, who was part of this group, started deteriorating and later she was found coronavirus positive. Her son, too, has been declared corona positive, officials in Pilibhit said.

The group belongs to Amaria town of Pilibhit district in Uttar Pradesh. They had gone to Mecca to perform ‘umrah’. When they returned to the villages via Mumbai on March 19, all the group members were stamped for quarantine.

“However, they were able to rub off the stamp with the help of a foreign perfume to avoid detection,” a Pilibhit official was quoted by TV9 Bharatvarsh. The woman and her son, who have been tested positive for the COVID-19 had revealed that to health officials.

- Advertisement -

“The group avoided air route and chose to travel by train from Mumbai to Lucknow,” said the official.

Yesterday, after a 33-year-old resident of Pilibhit, Uttar Pradesh, with no travel history from abroad, was tested coronavirus positive, Dr Sudhir Singh of King George Medical University, Lucknow had said that he was a confirmed case of contact transmission.

Pilibhit was recently in the news when, despite government orders restricting gatherings, police officers were seen leading a procession of people applauding healthcare workers at 5 pm on Sunday, 22 March.

COVID-19 is the infectious disease caused by the recent Coronavirus outbreak started in the Wuhan province of China in December 2019. The novel coronavirus was identified as a cause of the cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan. It rapidly spread, resulting in an epidemic throughout China followed by an increasing number of cases throughout the world. Globally more than 300,000 confirmed cases have been reported.

As per WHO, the initial transmission was associated with a seafood market where most patients used to work that sold live animals. Later the market was closed to avoid infection. However, the transmission progressed from person to person, which became the main mode of transmission. The person to person transmission has occurred mainly via respiratory droplets. The symptoms of COVID-19 may have aches and pains, nasal congestion, runny nose, sore throat, and diarrhoea.

In India, a total number of cases of coronavirus has reached 649 and 13 patients have succumbed to the disease. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday in an emotional gesture with folded hands requested the citizens to avoid stepping out of the homes till the next 21 days calling for a complete lockdown across the country.