CHANDIGARH: Two villages in Patiala district of Punjab with a population of 2000 were sealed on Sunday after a 21-year-old Nepal returnee tested positive for coronavirus.
As per sources, the youth who hails from Ramnagar village in Patiala district was working in a private company in Chandigarh and had returned from Nepal on March 21. He had also recently visited nearby Shahpur village. Thus this was the first case of COVID-19 in the district. He has been admitted at Ambala Civil Hospital in neighbouring Haryana on March 26 as he had complained of stomach pain.
It is learnt that his samples were sent to the PGIMER in Chandigarh and they came positive. Upon intimation, the health department and police rushed to Ramnagar village and sealed it off. They later also sealed off Shahpur village. Also, four surveillance teams have been send to identify his close contacts in the village.
A health department official said that some fourteen samples of the close contacts of the patient have been collected and sent for testing besides the department had started a survey in the village to detect any other patients with symptomatic of COVID-19.