THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Adding to the growing list of lapses in maintaining safety precautions, the body of a Covid positive patient was handed over to the family for funeral as a Covid negative case. The funeral held on Sunday was attended by hundreds of people in Chemmaruthi. On Monday, however, his TrueNat test result was declared positive on the website of the health department. Now, two wards in Chemmaruthi panchayat -- Nadayara and Muttapalam -- have turned into containment zones and over 150 people are in quarantine.
Shafeek, 33, came from Bahrain on August 20. Two days later, he developed a stomach ache and was moved to the Parippally medical college. From there, he was moved to the Government medical college in Thiruvananthapuram. Though he was tested twice for Covid, the results showed negative. After he died, a TrueNat test was conducted on Sunday.
“The imam, people who washed the body, relatives and others who took part in the funeral have all been quarantined. We usually make a list of people who attend funerals and note down phone numbers. This was also not followed in this case which makes it difficult for us to trace people. We will conduct tests five days later to identify the severity of the situation,” said Chemmaruthi panchayat president Salim Chemmaruthi.
A top health official said the hospital should have waited before handing the body over. “This is the responsibility of the staff dealing with that particular process. While handing the body over, the patient was negative. Basically, during any funeral, the Covid protocol should be followed in these times,” the official said.