Punjab on Wednesday registered a whopping spike of 26 fresh cases including a six-month-old from Kapurthala, who was already undergoing treatment at Chandigarh’s Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), taking the state’s total to 277.
Maximum 18 cases were recorded from Patiala district’s Rajpura town, followed by five from Jalandhar which included city mayor’s OSD. After a gap of over 10 days, two more cases were reported from Amritsar.
The five positive cases were reported from Jalandhar on late Tuesday evening, which includes 45-year-old Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to Jalandhar Mayor Jagdish Raja. Now, the district has total 53 positive cases, of which six have recovered and two have succumbed to the virus.
He is the close contact of corona positive Congress leader. Besides him, 55-year-old mother and 20-years-old sister of 24-year-old youth, who was tested positive on April 17, were also tested positive. Two other include, 56-year-old and 42-year-old men, living in a PG accommodation at Pacca Bagh area. Both were the co-workers of a 40-year-old patient of the Raja Garden area.
At 53, the district has the second-highest positive cases in the State so far after Mohali, where 62 persons have been infected with the virus.
The two cases were reported from Amritsar. As the details of the two are awaited, the two patients had tested positive in the rapid testing a day before. The new cases has increased district’s tally to 13.
The media bulletin, released in the evening, shows increase of six cases since Tuesday evening. The cases from Patiala and Amritsar are yet to be added in the official numbers, and would be reflective in the bulletin on Thursday.
18 NEW CASES IN RAJPURA
Witnessing a major spike in positive cases, Patiala district recorded 18 new cases, taking its number to 49. All the cases have been reported from Rajpura town, which has already been sealed.
“18 new positive cases, and all related to the original Rajpura case. Total 70 samples of RT-PCR were taken in Rajpura, of which 18 have been tested positive, while 52 are negative,” said the state’s Special Chief Secretary Karan Bir Singh Sidhu.
He added that there was no cause for concern as the area was “very securely contained”.
UNDER TREATMENT AT PGI, INFANT TESTS POSITIVE
A six-month-old, daughter of a labourer from Phagwara, undergoing treatment in PGI’s Advanced Pediatrics Centre for heart ailment since April 9, has been tested positive for Covid-19.
The baby girl was suffering from congenital heart disease and was advised a heart surgery. Before PGI, she was admitted in Ludhiana’s Apollo Hospital till April 8 for 36 days.
The PGI authorities decided to conduct corona test on the baby as she was suffering from “some infection” since past two days.
The teams of health department has taken the samples of the family members, including her uncle (Chacha) and aunty (Chachi), and kept them in home quarantine at their Phagwara residence, while her parents were tested at the PGI.
PGIMER’s official statement stated. “The baby girl, weighing three kg, was diagnosed as a case of acyanotic congenital heart disease with congestive heart failure. She had a ventricular septal defect, atrial septal defect and patent ductus arteriosus.”
“After a detailed assessment by the cardiologists and cardiothoracic surgeons, she was due to be taken up for open-heart surgery in the Advanced Cardiology Centre, PGI. However, a preoperative test for Covid-19 turned out to be positive on April 21,” it added.
The baby has now been shifted to the Covid facility in Nehru Hospital Extension, PGI. She continues to receive ventilatory support.