Maharashtra man who returned from Bangkok is corona+, takes cases in state to 147

Mumbai/Gondia: With 12 people in Sangli testing positive for coronavirus, the total number of patients in Maharashtra rose to 147 on Friday, an increase of 17 within a day, health officials said.

Earlier in the day, four persons tested positive for COVID-19 in Nagpur and another in Gondia, both in eastern Maharashtra. In Sangli, the number of COVID-19 patients is now 24.

All the infected persons in Sangli district are related to or had come in contact with a single family. Some members of this family had returned from Saudi Arabia and later tested positive for the virus.

The newly detected coronavirus patients had already been put in hospital quarantine, said Sangli district civil surgeon C S Salunkhe.

A 24-year-old man who returned to Gondia in Maharashtra from Thailand some ten days ago has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, District Health Officer Dr Shyam Neemgade said on Friday.

His report came in late Thursday night, the official informed.

"The man from Ganesh Nagar locality here had gone to Bangkok with friends from Rajnandgaon in Chhattisgarh and had returned some 10 days ago," he said.

Local officials said he had flouted home quarantine rules and was detained on Wednesday by health department authorities after one of his friends from Rajnandgaon on the Bangkok trip tested positive.

The locality where he stays has been sanitised and his family members ar being tested for the virus, they added.

Contact tracing measures are underway, the officials said.