Ten men died on Friday after drinking an alcohol-based hand sanitizer in Southern India as local liquor stores are closed to curb Coronavirus.
The local police said these are people who were highly addicted to alcohol thus could not put it together, thus turning to consuming sanitizers after the temporary ban on alcohol was effected.
“Some people who are heavily addicted to alcohol had been consuming hand sanitizers for the high,” Siddharth Kaushal, a top police official told Reuters confirming the incident.
“Alcohol is not available because of lockdown, but hand sanitizers are easily available,” he added.
The cop said some other people who had also consumed sanitizers had been discharged from hospital.
Among those who had died, some of them had underlying medical conditions.
The deaths in the town of Kurichedu in Andhra Pradesh came as India reported another record increment in the daily Covid-19 cases, bringing its nationally tally to 1.64 million.
The Indian government has allowed the re-opening of most economic activities to slowly restore the economy from a financial disaster.