Lucknow: An 82-year-old man under home quarantine in Uttar Pradesh’s Barabanki district was found dead in his house on Friday after villagers complained of foul smell in the neighbourhood. The decomposed body of the elderly suggested that he died several days ago.
Residents of the Mohammadpur Khala village told News18 that the man, along with his son, was asked to be quarantined after they returned from a trip to Gujarat last month. While his son was staying at the nearby primary school-converted quarantine facility in Sarwa area, the deceased older adult stayed alone and was often spotted by locals.
However, it is suggested that the residents were “scared” to go to his house since he returned from a different state amid the virus epidemic. The elderly had visited Baroda to attend a Mundan (head shaving) ceremony of one of his grandson.
A local ASHA worker said, “I had visited the man on March 22 and he asked him to quarantine himself since he returned to the village from a trip that day." The community health care worker said that she didn’t notice anything "unusual" when she went near his house on April 4 to put a notice outside his residence.
The fact that the man lived alone and cooked his own meals was raised by many including the village head Mahendra Verma. It is also suggested that the man's self-sufficiency played a part in the administration’s lack in keeping track of older people, including those with pre-existing health conditions amid the coronavirus crisis.
“The man had come to participate in the Mundan ceremony of his grandson. The man was in habit of cooking his own meals and even took his ration on April 1. He was last seen on April 4 after he visited a doctor in Belhara area to get medicines as was an Asthma patient,” he said.
Verma also said that he was “busy with other things” in the last couple of days and was unable to keep track of the wellbeing of the deceased man.
Commenting on the incident, Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Barabanki, Dr Ramesh Chandra said, “The responsibility of taking care of the man was with ASHA worker.” While not much can be said about when the man passed away, he said that the man exhibited no symptoms Covid-19, but his samples were sent for testing.
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