A body of a 25-year old man lay at his home in a village at Konark for more than 15 hours as relatives and villagers stayed away suspecting that he had been infected with Covid-19.
The man had died on Wednesday at Mankaragoradi village and his family was forced to arrange for PPE kits and other protective gears before the body could be taken to the cremation ground of the village. But none was ready to carry his body. The body was, instead, carried in a cycle cart next day.
Vichitra Rout, a tractor driver, had been suffering from high fever and was diagnosed with typhoid. He was asked by the Community Health Centre, where he was being treated to undergo the Covid-19 test. He was referred to the District Headquarters Hospital at Puri for test; but when he was taken there on August 4, its OPD had been shut as some staffs had contracted coronavirus.
Rout was then referred to a Bhubaneswar hospital but died on Wednesday before being taken there. Meanwhile, rumour spread that he had fallen prey to Covid-19.