The incident occurred in Golapada village in Ganjam district of Odisha.
The woman died on July 18 at her residence and the reason of her death is yet to be ascertained. Nobody in the village was ready to perform her last rites fearing that she succumbed to the deadly virus.
The deceased's elder sister and mother had tested positive for the deadly virus and had returned home after recovering from the disease. Her father is also currently under treatment at a COVID care.
The woman's body remained unattended at her residence for almost 15 hours, after which the village's Sarpanch was informed and the police were called.
Dilip kumar Panda, a villager said: "The woman is the sister of Sarpanch, her father is admitted in COVID Hospital. One day after her father was admitted to COVID Hospital she died, so we suspected she died of COVID-19. However, Sarpanch didn't take any initiative to cremate her. As the body was left unattended for 14-15 hours, at last, we contacted BDO and other district administration officials arrangements for the funeral pyre of the deceased happened."
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