No new patient of the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) was reported by the State health department in Uttarakhand on Monday. The State has so far reported 68 patients of the disease out of whom 46 have recovered and discharged from the hospital.
Meanwhile, the district administration and health department of Udham Singh Nagar went into a tizzy on Monday when they got information from Fatehgarh district of Punjab that a 47 year old person who was tested positive of COVID-19 on May 7 has drove into Bajpur town of Udham Singh Nagar. On the information, the district administration traced the person, a truck driver and admitted him into the Sushila Tiwari Hospital of Haldwani. The cleaner of the truck is being kept at a quarantine centre in Bajpur town. It is learnt that the COVID-19 positive truck driver had transported Iron bars from Punjab to Bajpur. The authorities are now tracing the contact history of the driver. Since the sample of the driver was taken in Punjab he would not be counted as patient of Uttarakhand though he would be treated here.
The additional secretary, state health department, Yugal Kishore Pant reports of 160 samples were received by the health department on Monday and all of them were found negative for COVID-19.
He added that reports of 245 samples are still awaited by the department. On Monday, a total of 154 samples were collected for COVID -19 testing. The authorities have so far taken swab samples of 9915 suspected patients for COVID-19 test. Out of the total samples taken, 0.74 percent samples have been found positive for the disease.
The rate of recovery from the COVID-19 in the state is 67.65 percent. A total of 14183 persons are kept in home quarantine while 2846 are in facility quarantine. A total of 133304 people have so far downloaded the ‘Aarogya Setu App’ on their smart phones.
The state has 21 active cases in the state with Udham Singh Nagar district having highest nine cases followed by Dehradun district which has eight active cases.
Haridwar district has two active cases while Nainital and Uttarkashi districts each have one active case.
Meanwhile the slow rate of testing of samples is causing concern among the experts. Noted social activist, Anoop Nautiyal tweeted, “I am deeply concerned with pace of sampling in Uttarakhand. On May 11, the health department collected 154 samples for testing and 160 samples were tested. The health department owes an explanation. More importantly this needs to be fixed on an urgent basis.’’