Nine people have died in Andhra Pradesh due to consumption of hand sanitiser instead of liquor. It was reported that they had consumed it because they had been informed that it contained alcohol. This has taken place in Kurichedu town in the Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh.
While three of them are believed to be beggars, the rest are local slum dwellers. A total of 20 people had consumed hand sanitizer in the last 2 days. It had been identified on Wednesday when one of them who had been begging outside a Goddess Durga temple and had complained of severe burning sensation in the stomach. He had died while on the way to the hospital. Two others had collapsed the next day.
The District Superintendent of Police, Siddharth Kaushal, told Hindustan Times that these people consumed sanitizer because of the non-availability of liquor due to lockdown. He said that sanitizer brought from small local shops have been sent for lab tests. He added that this was an attempt to identify whether the victims had consumed raw sanitizer or mixed it with local liquor.
The Andhra Government had opened liquor shops on May 4, albeit with a hike in prices. Kurichedu and areas around it have been under lockdown for the last 10 days due to the sudden spike in coronavirus cases, leading to the closure of liquor shops.