4 test coronavirus positive after return from quarantine centre

In a goof-up by Alamel taluk administration, four Maharashtra returnees, who were sent home from institutional quarantine on Friday, had tested positive for novel coronavirus on Sunday.

Two women and as many men had returned from Pune, Maharashtra, recently. They were placed under institutional quarantine at a hostel in Madanahalli village. With new SOP reducing the mandatory 14-day institutional quarantine to seven days for interstate travellers, all four were released and sent for home quarantine on Friday, two days before they tested positive for Covid-19.

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The travel history of one of the infected was frightening. The man in question is said to have attended a wedding and a funeral in the village, visited a hair-cutting salon at Alamel all in a day.

Realising their mistake, the authorities admitted all four to Vijayapura Covid Hospital on Saturday night. But the damage was done.

In fact, the taluk administration has sent many Maharashtra returnees home from quarantine centres across the taluk before they could receive the lab reports of the quarantined.

Meanwhile, the taluk administration has sealed Madanahalli village. All nine primary contacts of the infected and a barber have been placed under quarantine.