One fresh case of COVID-19 was reported in Chandigarh on Friday, after a gap of one week. A 40 years male resident of Sector 37 here has been diagnosed as COVID-19 positive case. The person has no travel history or history of contact with a documented COVID-19 positive case, sending alarm bells ringing in the Administration.
The new patient works as Assistant Professor in Department of Pharmacy (PU) where he has not visited since one month. “The 40 years old male has reported the onset of symptoms on March 24 onwards. He has been admitted at GMSH-16 since Thursday,” said a senior UT officer.
The officer said that it is a matter of concern that the person has no travel history or a history of contact with a positive case of COVID-19. Contact tracing of the person has begun on Friday.
The Sector 37 resident has four household contacts which include wife, mother, an 8 years old daughter and a 20 days old baby who was born at Santokh Nursing Home on March 20. His wife was admitted in the Nursing Home from March 17 to 20.
The officer further informed that the new positive case has a close friend who works in Indus Hospital phase 1 Mohali who is being shifted to quarantine facility at Sector 12.
Till Friday evening, Chandigarh has so far reported 19 positive Coronavirus cases, out of which seven have already recovered. However, Coronavirus hotspots have so far been identified in the city.
A total of 223 samples have been tested so far while the report of four was awaited till the filing of this report.
As a precautionary measure, 1508 people have been put in home quarantine, out of which 978 have completed the quarantine period till Thursday evening.
Notably, the Administration had already begun screening of city residents for the symptoms of Coronavirus through a door to door survey. Also, it has been made mandatory for the residents to use mask or a cloth on face or mouth in public places to combat the spread of infection.
The first positive case of COVID-19 of a 23-year old woman was reported on March 19. She has already recovered from the virus and is discharged from the hospital.
Last week, the city had recorded its youngest COVID-19 positive case of a 10-month old girl. The infant is the daughter of NRI couple who had come from Canada on March 13 and was tested positive of Coronavirus on March 30.