Jaipur | Jagran News Desk: In a piece of shocking news, 21 people allegedly lost their lives in as many days after they attended a COVID positive corpse's burial in Rajasthan's Sikar district without following appropriate norms to check the spread of the deadly infection.
Throwing light on the incident, the officials, quoted by news agency PTI, said that around 150 people had attended the burial of a COVID-19-infected body in Kheerva village on April 21. The officials said that the body was taken out of the plastic bag and several people touched it during burial.
However, they said that only four people out of the 21 died to COVID-19 from April 15 to May 5, adding that a report has been sought from the local authorities. A sanitisation drive is also underway in the village, the officials noted, adding that villagers are explained about the severity of the problem.
"Only 3 to 4 deaths have occurred due to COVID-19 out of 21 deaths. A majority of deaths are from the older age group. We have taken a sample of 147 members of families where deaths have occurred to check whether it is COVID-19 community transmission," PTI quoted Lakshmangarh sub-divisional officer Kulraj Meena as saying.
Meanwhile, the novel coronavirus, which was first reported in India on January 30 last year, has infected over 2 crore people across the country. In Rajasthan, the active COVID-19 case tally stands at 1.99 lakh while over 5,300 have succumbed to the infection.
Looking at the alarming spike in cases, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has also imposed lockdown-like curbs in the state till May 24, banning all kinds of gatherings, wedding functions and inter and intra-state movement in Rajasthan.
Gehlot on Saturday also attacked the Centre over the COVID-19 situation in the country, saying a decision over lockdown should have been made by it to avoid hardships to people.
"A lockdown is more needed than ever to prevent the infection spread. It is my opinion, on the basis of previous experience, the decision should have been made at the level of the Centre so that the common people, including the labourers, face minimum hardships and at the same time, there is better coordination among the states," he said in a statement.