A 70-year-old woman in Indore died after attending a birthday party while 19 others have tested positive for COVID-19. An FIR has been registered against the three organisers under sections 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) and 270 (Malignant act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for throwing a party amid the enforced lockdown.
Hemant Raghuvanshi, Sanver Block Medical Officer(BMO), said that all these 19 infected are relatives and among them, the youngest is a one-year-old and the 70-year-old is the eldest. The infected people have been admitted to different centres in Indore and the police are tracing the other attendees.
All of them had attended the birthday party of a two-year-old child ten days back, at Badodia Khan village, 32 Kilometre from the district headquarters.
‘A 70-year-old woman from Indore, who was already in poor health, also attended this birthday party. However, the family did not test her for COVID-19 despite her poor health and brought her from Indore to Badodia Khan village about 15 days ago,’ Raghuvanshi was quoted by News18.
‘During the contact tracing, we came to know about a birthday party organised in Badodia Khan village during the lockdown period. Around 60 people, including the deceased woman, had attended this party,’ he added.
On May 18, the elderly woman was brought to a hospital in Sanver, where she tested positive for COVID-19. Her condition worsened while undergoing treatment and passed away on Friday, May 22. The three accused have also tested positive and are being treated at a centre in Indore.
Badodia Khan village, a home for about 2,000 people, has been sealed and declared a containment zone.
Indore has at present reported 3,182 COVID-19 cases, of which, 119 have died. A curfew has been imposed in the city since March 25 to curb the spread of the virus.
