CHANDIGARH: Ten more people in Punjab have tested positive for the coronavirus, taking the total in the state to thirteen, while four more positive cases have been reported from Haryana, taking the total to 10.
As per the medical bulletin issued by the Punjab government, six family members of 70-year-old Baldev Singh of Pathlawa village, who died on Wednesday at the civil hospital in Banga after having recently travelled to Germany and Italy, have also tested positive for Covid-19.
They include Singh’s three sons who are 45, 35 and 34 years old, his 40-year-old daughter-in-law, 36-year-old daughter and 17-year-old granddaughter, besides a 60-year-old man of Moriwala village in Nawanshahr district. All of them have been shifted to the isolation ward in the hospital.
Deputy Commissioner of Mohali, Girish Dayalan, said that three more people also tested positive in Mohali including the 72-year-old sister of the 69-year-old woman living in Phase 3-A who tested positive on Friday. Both sisters were shifted on their request from the civil hospital to the Fortis Hospital.
A 25-year-old woman of Phase V also tested positive. She had come in contact with her friend, a 23-year-old woman from Chandigarh, who tested positive earlier.
It is learnt that she went to pick up her friend from the Amritsar international airport on March 15. She has been kept in isolation and is stable at the civil hospital in Phase 6.
The third case is a 42-year-old resident of Sector 69 who had recently returned from the United Kingdom and was admitted to a government hospital in Sector 16 in Chandigarh.
The close contacts of all these cases have been put under quarantine and surveillance. Samples of close contacts of these cases have also been taken and sent to designated labs for testing, stated the bulletin.
It further stated that a total of 96,983 persons have been screened in the state and 48 persons are under government quarantine at Amritsar.
The Punjab health department has changed its strategy from testing only symptomatic patients to testing all close contacts of a positive patient.
It is learnt that earlier the department was testing only those suspected patients who were showing symptoms of COVID-19 but is now testing all close contacts of a positive patient. It has tested 43 people in the state in the last three days thus taking the number of tested patients to 181. The results of 27 are awaited while 141 samples tested negative. This step was taken after the death of Baldev Singh on Wednesday.
Sources point out that this was being done as even asymptomatic patients could spread the virus.
Meanwhile, with four more positive cases, the number of confirmed Covid patients in Haryana has gone up to 10. This does not include the foreigners who are being treated in the state.
Two coronavirus cases were reported from Gurugram, and one each from Panchkula and Sonepat. The first case was of a gynaecologist at a local civil hospital in Gurugram who was entrusted with collecting samples of suspected coronavirus cases. After she began to show symptoms herself her swab sample was sent to PGIMS Rohtak, which tested them positive. Thus now the eleven doctors and paramedic staff who were associated with her are also being screened.
The second patient is a 16-year-old boy from Palam Vihar in Gurugram whose sister tested positive two days ago. In Sonepat, a young girl who returned from the UK on March 18 has tested positive on Friday. Her family and those whom she recently met have been put under surveillance.
A 38-year-old woman from Kharak Mangoli village in Old Panchkula adjoining Sector 1 (Haryana), who worked at a beauty salon in Chandigarh and came in contact with the 23-year-old woman who had returned from London, has also tested positive. She has been kept in isolation at the civil hospital in Sector 6, Panchkula.
Earlier, on Friday, Faridabad and Panipat reported one case each. A 52-year-old woman of Sector 11 in Faridabad tested positive after returning from Spain on March 12, while a 21-year-old man of Panipat also tested positive after having returned from the UK.
Meanwhile, in neighbouring Himachal Pradesh, a couple from Solan who recently came back from Indonesia have been booked for having broken their home quarantine. The state police registered a case against Tanveer and Neha of Kothi Kunal in Arki Tehsil. They had returned on March 10 and were advised by medical authorities to follow home quarantine procedure for 28 days.
Additional SP of Solan Shiv Kumar Sharma said that a case has been registered under Sections 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) and 271 (disobedience to quarantine rule) of the IPC after the Block Medical Officer of Arki Radha Sharma filed a complaint. The two offences could lead to an imprisonment of up to six months and a fine.