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55-year-old Odia man in home quarantine found dead
The man’s death has sparked fear among villagers who suspect that he could have died of Covid-19.
A 55-year-old tribal man died late Wednesday night at his home in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district where he was under quarantine after returning from Surat, officials said.
Paresh Chandra Mahanta was found dead at his home in Bhalubasa village of Nahandashola panchayat of Mayurbhanj.
While his cause of death is yet to be ascertained, fear has gripped the village with residents suspecting that he might have died of coronavirus given his travel history to one of the hotspots in the country. The local police said that the postmortem report will help reach a conclusion.
Mahanta’s widow Sombari said her husband worked as a cook in Surat and had returned 10 days ago. He spent seven days at a quarantine centre set up at Adarsha Vidyalay in Garudabasa village before being allowed to go home for another round of quarantine.
“Villagers had stopped coming to my house over fears that my husband was infected with Covid-19. No one turned up after his death,” said Sombari.
On Wednesday, a two-month-old girl was found dead in a quarantine centre of Bargarh district a day after she arrived with her migrant worker parents and other family members from Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh.
Meanwhile, the family of a person from Khurda district, who died in a Covid-19 hospital, has accused the administration of intentionally delaying the issuance of his death certificate.
The wife of the deceased alleged that the hospital is yet to declare the death of her husband as the authority concerned has not yet issued the death certificate of her husband.
The person had returned to Odisha from Surat in an ambulance on May 15. However, he was denied entry to his village, Balugaon, as he was sick. He was then admitted to AIIMS Bhubaneswar and later shifted to SUM Covid hospital on May 16, where he died on May 26.
“He was declared Covid-19 positive in AIIMS. We were even not allowed to meet him because of his infection. We are yet to get any documents related to his death,” said a relative of the deceased.
Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party lashed out at the Odisha government and warned of massive protests if it does not start swab testing at quarantine centres.
State BJP general secretary Prithviraj Harichandan said that the State government is not following the standard operating procedure (SOP) for Covid-19 testing at the quarantine centres.
“Though there is a provision to conduct the test of quarantined people within five days but it is not happening in Odisha, Not conducting Covid-19 test of people seems like a conspiracy of the government to spread the virus in the rural areas,” alleged Harichandan.
