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Home quarantine lapse goes viral, 4 positive cases soar to 24 in Sangli
On March 22, the four members who went to Mecca, tested positive, sending alarm bells among administrative circles, as it grappled to put over 47 members, to home quarantine
The primary step of not placing four members of a family with travel history in Islampur region of Sangli district under home quarantine led to spread of Sars-Cov2 which till Friday affected as many as 24 persons from same clan.
The four members, according to Sangli district administration, returned to Islampur from Mecca on March 14. Following their arrival at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai, the four persons, without any instructions of home quarantine, returned to their hometown through a private vehicle. As the stamping procedure wasn’t in existence, they could not be recorded as suspected cases.
Without any preventive measures, the joint family mingled with other members for next four days. The district administration collected their samples for Covid-19 test when they came to know about their arrival.
While Maharashtra’s first Covid-19 case was reported on March 9 after which authorities at airport had tightened the screening process, Sangli district collector Abhijeet Chaudhari said that the list administration received from airport authorities on passengers returning from foreign countries did not have names of Islampur family members.
“We got to know about the foreign visit of this family locally following which we collected their swabs for testing even as none of the four members showed any symptoms,” said Chaudhari.
On March 22, the four members who went to Mecca, tested positive, sending alarm bells among the administrative circles, as it grappled to put over 47 members, the first contacts, to home quarantine while collecting their samples.
“Of the 47 samples collected from the family, 24 tested positive and rest negative. Considering that the positive cases patients who didn’t go to Mecca may have also come in contact with other relatives, we home quarantined around 300 persons from the area and are monitoring them,” said Chaudhari.
Phone calls and text messages to Pune divisional commissioner Deepak Mhaisekar remained unanswered.
By March 27, more members of the family turned positive, taking the total at 24. The spike in cases from an area having population not more than 67,000 forced administration on Saturday to stricken lockdown measures.
“We have already put in place a containment programme under which only one person from one family is being allowed to step out for buying essential commodities. The person is stamped so that s/he only can come out and be identified easily,” said Maharashtra cabinet minister Jayant Patil, who is also a guardian minister of Sangli district.
As part of containment zone, around 500 homes have been notified to stay inside the house and the city administration has to ensure supply of essential to citizens. The entry and exit points to the city have been sealed and police bandobast has been put in place to ensure no one enters or leaves the city.
District hospital for Covid-19 cases only
To check virus outbreak spread, Maharashtra government on Saturday constituted a three-member committee chaired by JJ hospital dean Dr Pallavi Saple. Members of the committee arrived at Islampur and decided to convert the existing government hospital at Miraj for coronavirus patients.
“We have asked the district administration to convert Miraj hospital to attend to only Covid-19 patients and avoid the severe situation that happened in a Italy hospital where virus-affected persons increased as the medical hospital was treating Sars-Cov-2 infected and other patients under same roof,” said Dr Saple.
