UP / COVID-19 patient flee with family before being taken to hospital, booked

Lucknow: An 18-year-old youth, who had tested positive for coronavirus, has been booked after he and his family members fled their home at a village in Hardoi district.

The incident came to light when a team of health workers reached Terwa Dahigawan village on Friday to take the youth to hospital for treatment.

The youth and his five family members had come from Delhi on June 16 and attended a marriage function in the village, police said.

The district administration is identifying people who came in contact with the youth. As a precaution, police have put 40 households under home quarantine. They have set up barricades at the entry point of the village to prevent outsiders.

“Police are trying to locate the youth and his family,” said Station House Officer, Kasimpura police station, Brijesh Singh

Village pradhan Pushpa Devi’s husband Rajesh Kumar told The Indian Express that the youth and his family live in Delhi. “They left the village few years ago and their ancestral house was locked. They used to regularly visit the village,” he said.

On June 15, the family reached the village in a private vehicle to take part in a marriage function. They remained inside the house and stepped out only to attend the function. On a complaint that two of the youth’s family members showed coronavirus symptoms, a team of the district administration took samples of all the six people. The youth was found coronavirus positive following which health workers reached the village to take him to hospital. A few hours before the team arrived, the family escaped .

The administration alerted police and got an FIR lodged into the matter.

The youth has been booked under IPC sections 188 , 269 and 270 as well as the the Epidemic Disease Act.