The unavailability of liquor amid the lockdown imposed due to the novel coronavirus pandemic have made people do unimaginable and literally deadly things.
On Sunday, siblings in Karnataka's Kalaghatgi Taluka, both habitual drinkers, passed away on Sunday after they consumed an alcohol-based hand sanitiser as an alternative for liquor, reported Deccan Herald.
The deceased, identified as Basavaraj Venkappa Kurvinkoppa (45), a daily wager, his sister Jambavva (47) of Gambyapur village, were reportedly unhappy and depressed due to the unavailability of liquor in the times of the pandemic. However, it came to their knowledge that hand sanitisers contain alcohol. Hence, they started consuming it for the last four days and passed away at Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) in Hubballi.
Earlier in the month, three men had died in Chengalpattu, Tamil Nadu, after they also had consumed hand sanitizer since alcohol was not available. The three men were identified as K Sivaraman (30), Shivashankar (32) and Pradeep (32). Police said that the trio had become desperate and since they couldn't get any alcohol, they consumed hand sanitiser. They passed away at Chengalpattu Government Hospital.
Meanwhile, with 1,553 fresh cases of coronavirus reported in the last 24 hours, the total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in India has reached 17,265, said Lav Aggarwal, Joint Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, on Monday.
As many as 2,546 people have recovered from the disease so far, said Aggarwal during the daily media briefing on the coronavirus. "This takes the cure percentage to 14.75 per cent," he added.
