A man who was declared dead due to coronavirus at a Gujarat hospital in 2021 returned home on Saturday in Madhya Pradesh’s Dhar district, PTI reported.

The family members of Kamlesh Patidar had even performed his last rites after they were handed over a body by the hospital authorities, his cousin Mukesh Patidar told reporters on Saturday.

“During the second wave of coronavirus, he was admitted to a hospital and later doctors declared him dead,” the cousin said, according to PTI. “Now, he has returned home but he has not revealed anything about where he stayed during this period.”

In March 2020, the government had issued guidelines saying that bodies of patients who die of coronavirus are to be wrapped in plastic bags before being cremated as a precaution against spreading of the virus.

“Viewing of the dead body by unzipping the face end of the body bag (by the staff using standard precautions) may be allowed, for the relatives to see the body for one last time,” the guidelines stated.

On Saturday, Ram Singh Rathore, the station in-charge of the police station in Kanwan village of Dhar district, told reporters that Kamlesh Patidar had been admitted to a hospital in Vadodara with coronavirus infection. His family members performed the final rites in Vadodara itself after the hospital authorities handed over a body to them saying it was Patidar’s.