Health authorities in Batam, Riau Islands are looking for a woman who allegedly smeared her own face with the saliva of a deceased COVID-19 patient, with concerns mounting that she may further spread the disease on the island.
According to reports, on Wednesday, following the passing of a 47-year-old man identified as YHG to COVID-19, 24 of his family members and friends picked up his body by force from the morgue at BP Batam Hospital.
At the time of his passing, YHG had not tested positive for the coronavirus. Unwilling to wait for test results, his family and friends retrieved his body from the hospital in order to hold a wake at his home.
It was during the retrieval of YHG’s body that a woman, identified by her initials HL, dug her fingers into the deceased’s mouth and smeared his saliva onto her face while taunting doctors at the hospital.
Test results later revealed that YHG was infected with the coronavirus and his body was brought back to the hospital so that he could be buried in accordance with COVID-19 protocols.
Twenty-three of the 24 people who picked up YHG’s body were quarantined and subjected to swab tests, with 12 testing positive for the coronavirus as of Saturday evening.
HL, a vendor at a traditional market, is the only one of the 24 who have evaded health authorities to this day. As such, it’s not yet clear what her motivation was for smearing YHG’s saliva on her face.
Batam, which is separated from Singapore by the Singapore Strait, has confirmed 455 COVID-19 cases, including 25 deaths, as of Aug. 23, 2020.
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