Fourteen days after he returned from Dubai, a 40-year-old man from Morena tested positive for COVID-19 along with his wife on Thursday. And a day later, 10 of his relatives who had taken part in a feast thrown by him tested positive too.

More than 1,500 people who had attended the feast ceremony in honour of his mother, who had died on March 8, had been confined in quarantine and the locality where the venue was located had been sealed too, said District Chief Medical and Health Officer R.C Bandil.

Of the 23 persons whose samples had been taken, 10 relatives, including seven children, had tested positive, he added. The district administration had declared the house of the man, a restaurant waiter who had returned from Dubai on March 17, as the “epicentre” and the area within its 3 km radius as the “containment area”.

The children were aged between two and 14, whereas a 60-year-old woman had contracted the illness too, said Sapna M. Lovanshi, Additional Director, State Directorate of Health Services.

Curfew was imposed in the area and all persons were being screened at its exit points and traffic was prohibited too, said district officials.

Primary contacts

“His own two children have tested positive. We are collecting samples of all their primary contacts now and those residing within the containment area who have symptoms, including cough and cold,” said Dr. Bandil.

When the man landed in New Delhi, he was screened for illnesses but showed no symptoms until March-end, according to A.K. Gupta of the Morena district hospital.

“His wife told us she had caught a cough and cold even before her husband’s return,” he said. Still, even when the couple turned up at the hospital on March 29, the man did not declare his travel history. “However, he returned to the hospital on March 31 complaining of mild cough and cold that’s when he declared he had returned from Dubai, and we took their samples,” said Dr. Gupta.

“The ten members who had tested positive a day later didn’t have any symptoms,” said Pallavi Jain Govil, Principal Secretary, State Public Health and Family Welfare Department.