Indian official mistakenly drinks hand sanitizer, video goes viral  

Sanitizers are used for external use to avoid coming into contact with COVID-19, however, one Indian official mistakenly drank it while considering it a bottle of water during a public meeting.

The incident which involved a Municipal Corporation’s deputy commissioner in Mumbai, the capital city of India’s Maharashtra state was caught on camera.

Deputy Commissioner Ramesh Pawar was at a budget committee hearing in Mumbai on Wednesday when he sat down and took a gulp from a nearby bottle.

He thought it was water and took a swig but an onlooker rushed to warn him it was hand gel.

The footage shows Pawar showing documents to the audience at the public meeting before sitting down.

He then grabbed a bottle containing a clear liquid, opened its top and started to drink. He, however, soon realized his mistake and spit the liquid out of his mouth as others also rushed for his rescue.

He was later handed over a water bottle, which he took and then left the chamber.

Read More: Three dead, one permanently blinded after drinking hand sanitizer

Incidents of deaths after drinking hand sanitizers have been reported in India and in one such case, ten men died in a southern Indian state on Friday after consuming alcohol-derived sanitizer, as local liquor shops were closed due to a coronavirus-related lockdown, police said.

The deaths in the town of Kurichedu, in Andhra Pradesh, came as India reported another record surge in daily COVID-19 cases, taking the total to 1.64 million.