ROURKELA:  Three more members of a family along Rourkela main road-tested Covid-19 positive on Sunday even as the source of infection continued to remain unclear. As many as 30 neighbours have gone into home quarantine.  Earlier on June 11, two middle-aged female members of the same family had tested positive and became the local cases from the new locality of Deluxe Hotel Lane. The Sundargarh district administration had claimed that the two women were contacts of previous positive cases, but there is no clarity from whom they were infected. 

Administrative sources informed that of the rest family members quarantined at BPUT Covid-19 Care Centre here, a middle-aged man, his elderly mother and six-year-old son tested positive. They were shifted to Hi-Tech Covid-19 hospital. Incidentally, a 54-year-old male member of the family, who was a cloth trader, had died of cardiac failure on June 7 but was never tested for Covid-19. Several neighbours had also visited the bereaved family and attended the cremation ceremony. As many as 30 of them gave their swab samples for testing at the DAV school camp. They are now in home quarantine. 

One of the residents whose sample was collected said he and others are worried about the possibility of being infected by coronavirus. During the collection of swabs, Rourkela ADM Aboli Sunil Naravane visited the spot and counselled them. At least 10 others who had contacted the infected family members have been left out of the testing. Sanjay Singh, a resident, said he was asked to come for swab sample collection on Monday at camp but had to return in absence of any health team. Meanwhile, a Goa returnee lodged at Dumabahal temporary medical centre in Lefripara block tested positive on the day, taking the district’s tally to 130. Only 19 cases are active now and the rest have recovered.