In the battle against Covid-19, four districts of Punjab have emerged victorious even as the fight against the invisible enemy worsened in another part of the State.
With the State registering a spike of 26 cases in the past 24 hours taking the total tally to 277, three districts — Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar (Nawanshahr), Roopnagar (Ropar), Fatehgarh Sahib, and Moga — have succeeded in beating the coronavirus.
Shedding the Covid-19 affected tag, these districts have, as of now, no active cases, with all the patients, tested positive for the deadly virus, have fully recovered and discharged.
With this, total 15 districts, out of the 22, in the State are affected with the coronavirus.
Till date, State’s three districts — Bathinda, Fazilka, and Tarn Taran — have succeeded in keeping the coronavirus at bay, and fortunately remaining “green”.
The most commendable success story was of Nawanshahr, which had witnessed the state’s first Covid-19 casualty on March 18, and has reported a total of 19 cases. What is more, the district has not reported a corona case since March 26.
Other than the one death, all 18 patients in the district have been recovered and discharged with the latest being the 16-year-old boy. He was discharged from the SBS Nagar Civil Hospital on Wednesday after the report of his second sample came negative.
With 18 active cases at one point of time, SBS Nagar emerged as the coronavirus hotspot. The district’s first case was of 70-year-old granthi from Pathawala village Baldev Singh, who died of cardiac arrest on March 17, and tested positive a day later.
Till then, he had infected many others in his family, among his relatives and friends, spreading over the districts of Nawanshahr, Hoshiarpur, and Jalandhar.
Baldev Singh, who had travel history of Germany via Italy, had infected 27 people, of 14 are from his own family including his two-year-old grandson.
Nawanshahr Deputy Commissioner Vinay Bublani attributed the success in containing fresh cases and curing coronavirus patients to people’s support and proper implementation of the containment plan, contact listing and door-to-door surveillance of the district.
“People have been very supportive to our efforts, and they know whatever we are doing is in their interest only. Without their support, it would not have been possible for us,” said Bublani.
Bublani said that the containment plan was implemented effectively in the district, that has a population of about six lakh, and 15 villages were properly sealed to check the spread of coronavirus.
“With the support of the Civil Administration staff, health workers, police and the locals, the contact listing of positive cases was carried out extensively so that any patient would not remain unattended,” said Bublani, adding that at least 700 samples have been tested for coronavirus in the district so far.
Regarding recovery of the patients, he said: “Proper counseling of patients was done at the civil hospital so that they always remain in positive frame of mind. Our efforts have always been that they should not feel that they were acute patients. We always told them that they can be treated.”
Building the district’s case for being in ‘green zone’, the state’s Special Chief Secretary Karan Bir Singh Sidhu said: “No one has tested positive in the district since March 26. The 18th and the last Covid patient discharged today after recovery. A district is entitled to be labelled green, if there is no new positive case in the last 28 days….It is almost there.”
In Moga too, the four patients, originally hailing from Mumbai’s Andheri, have also tested negative for Covid-19 for the second time, and they would be discharged on Thursday. All of them were tested positive on April 7, after they returned to Moga from Andheri via Delhi.
Interestingly, the district has not seen a fresh corona case since past two weeks. Directions have been issued for launching intensive tracking, screening, testing and treatment drives to check spread of corona virus in the district. The last patient in Ropar, out of the total three reported in the district, has also tested as negative on Wednesday.
“The main core factor is the people’s willingness to follow the rules. The sooner they realized, the sooner is path to recovery. The stories of people recovering have lifted the spirits and willpower of patients under treatment,” Ropar Deputy Commissioner Sonali Giri told The Pioneer.
“But there was amazing synergy of civil administration, doctors, police and the civil society. People cast doubts on the government’s working. But this time, government is working on the forefront and people are trusting us,” she added.
Ropar, in all, recorded three cases, of which two have recovered and one succumbed to deadly virus. Joining the group is Fatehgarh Sahib district which is also “free from any Covid patient”. Sharing the information, Sidhu said: “The second Tablighi Jamat lady tested negative for the second time. She’s being discharged from the Gian Sagar Isolation faculty. The district thus has no Covid-19 positive case, as of now.”
In fact, Hoshiarpur district had also reported no positive case of coronavirus since the past 21 days.