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A man who escaped from quarantine and went to a barber to cut his hair is believed to have caused at least six COVID-19 infections in a village in the Khargone district of Madhya Pradesh.
Six men who went to the same barber tested positive for the virus.
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“We still don’t know if they used the same napkin or if they had direct contact with each other,” said Gopal district collector Chandra Dad.
The first patient, who escaped from quarantine, had transported the virus from Indore, authorities said. A waiter in a restaurant there, the man was quarantined after some of his colleagues tested positive. However, he escaped to his hometown of Badgaon.
As the roads were closed due to the closure, he took the forest route on foot. On the way, he called his brother-in-law, who took him back to his home on a motorcycle. The next day, his hair was cut, said district police superintendent Sunil Kumar Pandey.
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Villagers informed authorities of his presence when he had returned from Indore, a source of infection for at least seven of the 61 patients in Khargone. They took their samples, which were positive. The next day, the entire town was sealed.
“We came to know that he had visited a barber who offered services at home. We trace the patient’s contacts and take samples from 12 people, including the barber, ”said Mr. Pandey. “It is obvious why the barber did not hire him. Barbers frequently clean and use disinfectants while offering services.”
Their samples were collected on April 7. But the results came so late from a government-run hospital in Indore on April 23 that the six asymptomatic patients had already completed their 14-day isolation period. “We will re-analyze your samples before we discharge you from the hospital,” said Mr. Dad.
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Khargone is one of the three neighboring Indore districts that have seen increasing mortality. Up to six patients, or 10% of them, have died of the disease. The four districts, including Ujjain and Dewas, together account for 85% of the 103 deaths in Madhya Pradesh.
