The cases of novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Uttarakhand are showing no signs of abatement. On Sunday, the health department reported seventh case of the disease in the state. What is a matter of great concern is that the latest patient of the disease is an armed force personnel deployed in Dehradun. The patient, a 47-year-old Subedar is said to be a native of Rajasthan. He had returned to his unit in Dehradun on March 10 from his home town.

On March 26 he was admitted in the Military Hospital (MH) Dehradun with the symptoms of the disease. His swab sample was sent to the laboratory of the Government Medical College in Haldwani.

On Sunday he was found positive for the disease. The State control room for COVID-19 received reports of 27 samples on Sunday out of them 26 were negative while one was positive.

The director general (DG) of State health services, Dr Amita Upreti said that the department is working on marking the people with whom the patients of the disease had came into contact.  She said these people are being kept at home quarantine or facility quarantine. The department has also kept 1730 people in observation, who have recently returned from the foreign destinations. She said that the department has fully trained 1479 doctors, 952 staff nurses, 170 lab technician and 1751 pharmacists on controlling the infection of the disease. Apart from them, the personnel of the police, State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), PRD, home guards, GMVN and KMVN have also been trained.

The DG added that the department has also finalised the hospitals where treatment of the disease would be done and in these hospitals 774 beds in isolation wards have been prepared. The department has also reserved 903 for the suspected patients of the disease while 1687 beds have been prepared under quarantine facility. She added that the department has provided 3371 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) kits, 6769 N -95 masks and 233386 triple layer masks to the health workers.