Two fresh positive cases confirmed in Chandigarh, Mohali
22-year-old man from Chandigarh’s Sector 30 showed no symptoms for 10 days after returning from Dubai; Was not included in the passengers’ list from the civil aviation ministry; Mohali patient is the wife of the Sector-69 man who tested positive on March 21; daughter tests negative
Two fresh positive cases of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) were reported from Chandigarh and Mohali on Friday, taking the tricity count to 15.
In Chandigarh, a Sector 30 resident, 22, who had returned from Dubai on March 11, and was admitted to Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Sector 32, on Friday, tested positive. The total confirmed cases in Chandigarh are now eight.
Through a series of tweets, UT adviser Manoj Parida said details of this patient were not there in the list of passengers returning from abroad sent by the Union ministry of civil aviation, suggesting that he was not quarantined as per protocol.
“He developed symptoms after 10 days, but reported to the hospital only after 15 days… Tracing his contacts ..All will be quarantined,” the adviser wrote on Twitter.
UT health officials said 57 of his primary and secondary contacts had been traced and put under home quarantine. Of these seven are close contacts and his mother is a direct high-risk contact. His father lives in Dubai and brother in Canada.
“Currently, the patient is in the isolation ward at GMCH. He is asymptomatic and fully stable,” an official release stated.
The second patient testing positive on Friday is a 36-year-old woman from Mohali’s Sector 69, — the sixth confirmed case in the district.
The woman, who is admitted at Gian Sagar Hospital in Banur, is the wife of a 42-year-old man, who had tested positive on March 21. He is undergoing treatment at Government Multi-Specialty Hospital (GMSH) in Sector 16, Chandigarh.
The couple had returned from the United Kingdom on March 12. While the man was hospitalised on March 15, the Mohali health department took the samples of his wife on March 25. Her report received on Friday confirmed she had contracted the infection.
Mohali civil surgeon Dr Manjit Singh said the couple was stable and responding to treatment. The reports of their daughter and parents are negative.
On why the woman’s samples were taken 10 days after her husband tested positive, Dr Singh said she was doing well. “But now, we have sent samples of all those who were directly in touch with them,” he said.
UT’s health department said the contact tracing exercise for the primary contacts of the first seven positive cases had been completed, and they have been quarantined as per protocol.
Dr Gajinder Dewan, director health services, UT, said, “We have taken steps to identify those in quarantine for the safety of residents. Stickers are being pasted on the houses of those in quarantine to help their neighbours remain cautious,” he said.
Over the past two days, the district health authorities had sent 84 samples for testing. While one tested positive, 55 are negative and reports of 29 samples are awaited.
Over 1,400 people are under home quarantine in the tricity. Enforcement teams are checking on them regularly. Those violating home quarantine will be dealt with strictly.
In larger public interest, the lists of those in home quarantine in Chandigarh and Mohali are regularly updated on the websites — www.chd.gov.in and www.sasnagar.gov.in.
Meanwhile in Panchkula, no fresh case has been reported since the first case was confirmed on March 21.
On Friday, the health department took three new samples for testing. Panchkula civil surgeon Dr Jasjeet Kaur said till now 48 samples had been taken, of which one tested positive, 43 were negative and reports of four samples were awaited.
The only positive patient, a 38-year-old woman from Kharak Mangoli village, is recuperating at the civil hospital in Sector 6. She is stated to be stable. The woman worked at a salon that Chandigarh’s first coronavirus patient had visited on her return from London.
