Write Comment     |     E-Mail To a Friend     |     Facebook     |     Twitter     |     Print

Hyderabad: Fifteen members of a family tested COVID-19 positive at Puranapul area of Hyderabad in Telangana on Sunday. Notably, the family had hosted an engagement function during the coronavirus-induced lockdown.

The infections surfaced after one 58-year-old member of the family died on May 11. A heart patient, the man was tested for COVID-19 after his death.

The other members of his family, who also displayed symptoms, were also tested. The test results on Sunday found 16 people, including the deceased, infected with the novel coronavirus.

In fact, the bride was not feeling well on the day of the engagement ceremony.

The family had held an engagement ceremony at their home on May 10, a day before the death of the 58-year-old grandfather of the bride.

As per the Hyderabad Police, at least 20 members of the family stay in the same building.
"Once we got a tip-off that there was a gathering we sent a constable as they were violating lockdown measures," The News Minute mentioned G Ranaveer Reddy, Inspector, Mangalghat police station, as saying. “There were some 40 guests -- most of the people at the function were residents of the same building,” he further said.

The family has been booked under Section 188 (Disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of the Indian Penal Code. They have been taken to Gandhi Hospital for treatment.

Police revealed that the deceased’s son, who works in a bank, was the first one to catch the infection from one of his friends, who was later tested COVID-19 positive.

As per Reddy, the “bank employee, his wife, children, two brothers, three sisters and his cousin sisters all staying in the same building have tested positive”.

The area in which the building is located is not a containment zone.

The health department has, meanwhile, “tested another 40 persons in connection with the family who attended the function. They are all negative.”

In another development, samples of 13 employees of a Hyderabad bank in Puranapul area in the Old City have been sent for testing after it surfaced that a coronavirus positive customer had visited their branch for a transaction.

The total number of coronavirus cases in Telangana stands at 1,551.