1 dead, 3 critical after taking pills from suspected health worker

Erode:

A woman died while her husband and two others are battling for life after taking tablets given to them by a person suspected to be a volunteer from the Health Department to find residents suffering from symptoms of Covid-19.

The incident happened at K G Valasu village in Erode district on Saturday.

This morning, the person entered the house of Karuppannan, a farmer, and asked whether he and his family were having fever or cough. When the farmer replied in the negative, the person gave them some pills to boost immunity, police said.

After he left, Karuppannan and three others took the pills and fell unconscious, the police said.

Later, neighbours found the farmer’s wife dead and took the three others to hospital, they said.

On coming to know this, Sasi Mohan, Superintendent of Police (SP), said for the past 15 days, the Health Department has been sending temporary volunteers to visit door-to-door, collect details of people infected with fever or cough.

Hence the suspicion that such a person may have visited the house of Karuppannan and given the tablets, he said adding that investigations are also on to find out if Karuppannan has any dispute with relatives or others.

Meanwhile, four special police teams have been formed to trace the suspected volunteer.