Woman Who Fled Hospital in Agra Tests Positive for Coronavirus

Agra: A 25-year-old woman, whose husband in Bengaluru is hospitalised with coronavirus, has tested positive for COVID-19 here, three days after she fled from a hospital without informing authorities, officials said on Monday.

So far, there have been seven positive cases in the Taj city and five of the patients have recovered from the novel virus while two, including this woman, are under treatment, the Health Department officials said.

Around 20 people related to these two patients have been quarantined for observation and in order to check the spread of the virus, they added.

According to the officials, this woman and her husband returned from their honeymoon in Europe earlier this month and landed in Mumbai. From there they went to Bengaluru, where her husband, who works for an IT company, tested positive for coronavirus and was hospitalised.

The woman then left for Delhi and later came to her parents' house here and allegedly did not cooperate with the health department officials on March 12 for a coronavirus test despite being "highly suspected".

"The woman has tested positive for the coronavirus on Sunday and has been hospitalised for treatment. Eight of her family members have also been quarantined.

There is one more man who has tested positive earlier and is undergoing treatment. Eleven of his family members have been quarantined. So far, there have been seven positive cases of COVID-19 in Agra, five of them have been treated and sent home, a Health Department official told PTI.

The woman's father, a government employee, was on Sunday booked under sections 269 (unlawfully or negligently doing any act which is, and which he knows is likely to spread the infection of any disease dangerous to life) and 270 (malignant act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) after he allegedly misled health and administration officials regarding his daughter's whereabouts.

This was perhaps the first case in the country in which an FIR has been registered against any person for concealing information or misleading authorities over coronavirus, a day after the Uttar Pradesh government invoked the Epidemic Act to prevent the spread of the virus that has rattled people globally.