Punjab’s total tally on Friday reached 151 with fresh cases reported from Mohali, Pathankot, Sangrur and Jalandhar — all contacts of the positive cases — including a six-month-old baby boy. The state also witnessed one more death of corona positive patient, taking the total tally to 11.
Mohali district reported maximum of 11 cases, with 10 from Jawharpur village of Dera Bassi block, taking district’s final count to 48. With this, the village alone has 32 positive cases.
To mitigate the spread of coronavirus, the village has been sealed and curfew has been imposed. As many as 25 policemen, including COVID-19 commandos, have also been deployed in the village so that nobody steps out of their houses.
“The authorities have sealed the Dera Bassi area and are treating it as a coronavirus cluster,” said Mohali Deputy Commissioner Girish Dayalan. He said that all 10 new patients have been isolated and they are the family members of the village panch and sarpanch who had tested already positive.
As the village has become a hotspot, Mohali District Administration has sealed off the Jawharpur village along with some other neighbouring villages as part of its cluster containment strategy.
“Extensive sampling has enabled us to identify more positive cases within the village and timely isolate them, hopefully containing the spread in the village with a population of 2500 plus, as well as beyond,” said Dayalan adding that containing without extensive sampling would not have achieved the desired or same results.
Dayalan said: “My health teams have been receiving flak for large number of samples being taken which is not fair. If they didn't, areas would be infected so quickly.
At least now you can isolate the carriers and try to break the chain.”
He said that the district’s health teams have even regularly sampled over 10 dead bodies — where also a positive case was discovered.
Notably, the test results of a 78-year-old woman who died in Mohali on Tuesday confirmed she had the virus. Mohali Civil Surgeon Dr Manjit Singh said that the Mohali woman suffered from diabetes and hypertension. After her death, her samples were taken and sent to PGIMER in Chandigarh for testing as a precautionary measure.
Dayalan said that the co-morbid patient was brought to the emergency ward of a hospital in Kharar on April 6 and died the next day. “Her body has been cremated as per protocol. All primary contacts of the deceased woman have been traced and their samples sent for testing,” he added.
PATHANKOT EMERGING AS NEW HOTSPOT
Emerging as new hotspot, Pathankot on Friday reported eight new cases, taking the total number of cases in the district to 15.
Seven of the eight new cases are from the family of a 75-year-old woman from Sujanpur who died in Amritsar hospital a few days ago. Already, woman’s six relatives, including husband, had tested positive a day before.
The eighth case, reported on Friday, is of a woman domestic help and is unconnected — sparking fears of the possibility of community spread.
The district administration, from where one COVID-19 death and 11 confirmed cases have been reported, has already sealed its boundaries with neighbouring Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and Chamba and Kangra districts of Himachal Pradesh (HP), barring movement of essential goods.
As the administration is tacking the source of infection, the deceased’s grandson’s marriage was held in Pathankot and the bride’s brother had arrived from Canada and is suspected to be the carrier. Samples of 99 people who came in contact with the family have been taken for corona testing.
ONE CASE EACH FROM JALANDHAR, SANGRUR
Jalandhar and Sangrur districts reported one case each on Friday. Both cases are primary contacts of the corons positive cases.
In Jalandhar, a 17-year-old grandson of a 72-year-old woman, who tested positive on March 26, was also tested positive. The development came a day after his 47-year-old father also tested positive after he complained of breathing problems.
A day after 55-year-old man from Gagadpur village was tested positive for coronavirus, another villager, 65-year-old, was tested positive for coronavirus following which the administration has started testing all in contact with the patient.
Panchayats, along with the police, have sealed all entry and exit points of the village.
The patient has returned to Ludhiana through air travel from New Delhi on March 24, and in the same flight, another positive patient had travelled. Since then, he had been under quarantine at his house.
Besides, there are reports that the first positive patient had travelled to various villages and mosques in the district as part of a pilgrimage.
Alarmed, the district authorities have launched an extensive contact tracing to find out everyone he came in contact with.
The man, hailing from New Delhi, came to Malerkotla by train on March 4. “He has been placed under isolation and a massive contract tracing campaign has been launched here.
During preliminary inquiry, it has been found that from March 4, the patient travelled to Malerkotla, Pohid, Ghungrana, Kila Raipur, Sarian villages, besides Hanfiya Mosque, Ahemdgarh, Nurani Mosque, among others.