70-year-old COVID-19 patient flees isolation facility in Pune, walks 17km to reach home

Amid the Coronavirus crisis, a 70-year-old COVID-19 patient ran away from an isolation facility from Pune's Balewadi area to go home. According to reports, he walked around 17 kilometres to reach his home in Maharashtra's Yarwada. Further, the patient alleged that he escaped the civic body's quarantine facility as it did not provide food to patients and lacked basic amenities like clean washrooms. The senior citizen was tested positive for Coronavirus on April 25. 

About the incident

According to reports, on Tuesday evening, the senior citizen's neighbours found him sitting helplessly outside his home which was locked up since his family members were also quarantined after testing positive. After the locals informed the authorities, the matter reached to Yerawada area corporator Siddharth Dhende who arranged for an ambulance to take him to the isolation facility.

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Speaking to the news agency, ANI, Yerawada area corporator Siddharth Dhende said, "I informed the authorities to immediately rehabilitate the elderly man. I learned that civic officials were not even aware that he had disappeared. He was a suspected coronavirus case and was first sent to the Rakshaknagar quarantine facility in Kharadi on April 24. Next day, he was detected positive and he was shifted to Balewadi's National Institute of Construction Management and Research (NICMAR) facility." 

He further expressed concerns regarding the lack of basic amenities in the quarantine facilities and urged the higher authorities to look into the matter. 

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COVID-19 cases in India 

According to the latest update from the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, the number of total Coronavirus cases in the country has climbed to 31,332, including 22,629 active cases. While 1007 deaths have been reported overall, around 7,696 people have been cured/discharged/migrated. Meanwhile, Maharashtra and Delhi have the highest number of cases in the country. 

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(With ANI Inputs)

Image source: ANI