15 of Family including 6 children with no travel history test corona +Ve at Hafiz Babanager

By Naseer Giyas

Hyderabad: A family has slipped into a shock after 15 of its members including six children and a three-month-old infant tested positive for COVID-19 at Hafiz Babanager A block on Sunday .

This comes four days after the family lost a 68-year-old member. She had a history of diabetes and cardiac problems besides other age-related ailments.

What has sent shock waves across is that the family has no travel history. Officials suspect it a case of community transmission.

Interestingly, the deceased lady didn’t have any travel history. Officials and family members have so far failed in tracing the source of infection. They are saying that the lady didn't move out of the house for many days except her brief hospitalization before her death.

Moreover, officials swung into action and prepared a list of 40 people who have come in contact with the deceased.

According to officials, a senior citizen of the family was admitted to Yashoda Hospital after she complained of weakness and breathlessness. Doctors treating her suspected COVID-19 symptoms and advised family members to shift her to Gandhi Hospital. Her test report came hours after her demise.

“My grandmother died while she was being shifted to Gandhi Hospital. We buried her in a nearby graveyard on the same night,” said her 23 year-old grandson.

He is among 10 members of the family who have been admitted to King Kothi Hospital. He said five other members of the family are admitted to Gandhi Hospital.

According to him, nearly 40 people including his friends and neighbors have been kept in isolation by GHMC and Health Department officials after they received the confirmation of his grandmother's illness.

“The majority of my family members had a fever and cold. None of them had a cough or problem in breathing,” he said.

An official said they are ascertaining how the deceased contracted COVID-19. “Whether she had become a victim of local community transmission or not is too early to say,” he added.

Meanwhile, people in a densely populated slum at Hafiz Banagher A block are worried after COVID-19 releated death. The G+2 building was evacuated by officials on April 2.

( Naseer Giyas is a multimedia and bilingual journalist who has been largely covering issues related to the Muslim community in India.)