BHOPAL: Already reeling under the onslaught of COVID-19, Indore city now faces the threat of the deadly infection spreading from two untraceable patients.
Eight men, five of whom tested positive for the deadly virus on Tuesday, escaped on Wednesday from a marriage garden where they were quarantined for the last two weeks.
They escaped between 12 noon and 2 pm from the Queens Park quarantine centre on the outskirts of the city under Rajendra Nagar area.
A few hours later, three of them were tracked and brought back from Krishnapura area (around 15 km from where they escaped), but the others are untraceable.
According to Rajendra Nagar police station sources, the three men tracked so far are positive patients and have been admitted to the Index Medical College Hospital.
All the eight men belong to the minority community and hail originally from UP, Bihar, Bengal and Rajasthan. They worked as labourers in Indore's Ranipura area -- one of the COVID-19 containment zones in Indore.
It was on Tuesday that five of the eight men who escaped from the quarantine centre had tested positive. They were to be shifted to the hospital on Wednesday but fled before that.
Indore has emerged as one of the prime COVID-19 hotspots in the country with 707 cases and 39 deaths so far.
Doctor who went to Tablighi Jamaat event booked for hiding travel history
Meanwhile, a 47-year-old doctor who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat gathering in Delhi last month and subsequently tested positive for the deadly virus has been booked by cops in Khargone district for hiding his travel history.
According to the SP of Khargone district, Sunil Pandey, the doctor has been booked under Sections 188, 269 and 270 of IPC, besides provisions of the Epidemic Act 2005.
The doctor had attended the religious gathering from March 5 to March 12 and returned to Khargone on March 14, but didn't inform the local administration.
He was among the 14 persons who tested positive for the virus in Khargone on Wednesday.