The apprehension of the health department and concerned citizens that the returning migrants could bring novel coronavirus (COVID-19) to the areas of Uttarakhand which hitherto have remained free from the dreaded virus is proving true.
On Sunday, one person who had recently returned from COVID-19 infested Gujarat to his village in mountainous district of Uttarkashi was found positive for the disease. The district like other mountainous districts of the State was so far free from the virus and has been placed in the green zone.
A day earlier, four persons, the migrants who had came from Uttar Pradesh (UP) were found infected with the COVID-19 in Udham Singh Nagar district which was also in green zone.
The person found positive for COVID-19 in Uttarkashi is a 32-year- old youth from Dunda block. He along with three others had come on motorcycles from Surat in Gujarat on May 8. His sample was taken on May 8 by health department when he showed some symptoms of the disease. The sample was declared positive on Sunday by the lab of AIIMS, Rishikesh.
A shocked district health department has now sent five people who had came into his contact into quarantine and is tracing other contact history of this youth.
With this new case, Uttarakhand now has 68 cases of the disease out of which 46 patients have recovered and discharged from the hospitals.
The additional secretary, state health department, Yugal Kishore Pant reports of 331 samples were received by the health department on Sunday and out of them one was found positive for COVID-19.
He said that the state now has 21 active cases of the disease out of total 68 positive cases so far. Pant said that reports of 194 samples are still awaited by the department. On Sunday, a total of 187 samples were collected for COVID -19 testing. The authorities have so far taken swab samples of 9668 suspected patients for COVID-19 test. Out of the total samples taken, 0.75 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 14624 persons are kept in home quarantine while 2514 are in facility quarantine. A total of 1264979 people have so far downloaded the ‘Aarogya Setu App’ on their smart phones. Out of the 21 active cases in the state, Udham Singh Nagar district now has highest nine cases followed by Dehradun district which has eight active cases. Haridwar district has two active cases while Nainital and Uttarkashi districts have one active case now. The doubling rate in the state in the last seven days is 39 days.