The funeral rituals of a Gujarat returnee, wrongly declared COVID-19 positive, was conducted without his body at Haripur village in Odisha’s Ganjam district on Thursday.
As per reports, the man, who had been suffering from asthma, had returned from Surat around two months back. After his asthma aggravated, his family members took him to the Bhanjanagar hospital on May 12, from where he was referred to the MKCG Medical College and Hospital in Berhampur.
On May 16, doctors at MKCG transferred him to a COVID-19 hospital at Sitalapalli suspecting that his symptoms may be related to the viral infection. He breathed his last the same night. Though his samples tested negative for COVID-19, his name wrongly got added to the list of deaths due to COVID-19 on May 17 morning.
Villagers in panic
The State government corrected the mistake after five hours, but the damage was done. His wife and other family members were put to untold hardship. They were unable to take his body back to their village, Haripur, for the funeral because of opposition by villagers, who were in panic. The body was cremated near Sitalapalli on May 18.
The family, however, wanted to perform the customary rituals. On Thursday, a symbolic sand idol was burnt in a pyre of thatch at a cremation ground in Haripur village. The nephew of the deceased lit the pyre in the presence of a few family members.
