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22 families living in Covid positive PGIMER staffer’s building quarantined in Nayagaon
30-year-old works as a hospital attendant at PGIMER and had been attending to suspected coronavirus patients
A day after a 30-year-old hospital attendant at PGIMER tested positive for Covid-19, the health authorities have started screening the 22 families that live in his building in Adarsh Nagar, Nayagaon.
Earlier, after a 65-year-old man of Nayagaon’s Dashmesh Nagar had died of the disease on March 31, the area was declared a containment zone and residents were extensively screened. Health authorities have restarted screening these residents and sealed the street where the deceased stayed.
The hospital attendant lives with his wife, a newborn son, mother and brother-in-law in a multi-storey building in the thickly populated Adarsh Nagar. The building has around 40 rooms, which are all on rent. The building opposite has about 100 rooms, all occupied on rent. All residents are acquaintances and kept visiting each other despite the curfew.
As many as 13 of his contacts, including his family members, have been tested. The reports are awaited. The 30-year-old had been working in PGIMER’s ward where suspected Covid positive patients are isolated.
“The area around his building has been sealed and all families living in the building have been quarantined. All essential supplies will be delivered to these residents at their doorsteps,” said Himanshu Jain, sub-divisional magistrate ( SDM), Kharar, adding that the Nayagaon municipal council executive officer, the nodal officer for essential supplies, will ensure this.
“Besides sampling the primary contacts, we will screen area residents using rapid testing kits from Monday onwards,” said Girish Dayalan, deputy commissioner, Mohali.
Civil surgeon Manjit Singh said, “Further contact tracing is on. The house-to-house survey of the locality where the patient lives has been completed, and so far all residents are asymptomatic.”
“The street outside the youth’s building has been sanitised and barricaded to limit movement of residents,” said area councillor Kuljinder Kaur.
Meanwhile, the district reported no fresh case on Saturday. Mohali has so far confirmed 57 positive cases. Of these two persons have died and six have been discharged after being cured.
123 CONTACTS OF TWO CHANDIGARH PATIENTS TRACED
Chandigarh MC’s contact tracing team has traced 75 contacts of the Sector-30B woman and 48 contacts of the sanitation worker from Dhanas. Both had tested positive for Covid-19 on Friday, taking the Chandigarh count to 23.
While the sanitation worker is suspected to have picked up the infection while working in PGIMER’s communicable diseases ward, the source of the woman’s infection has not been ascertained yet. The grocery shop, chemist shop and a Verka booth visited by the woman, who is in her 50s, have been sealed.
“Among her 75 contacts, six live with her. There are five more family contacts. Nine of these people have been sampled. The remaining 64 people are community contacts and have been home quarantined,” stated the MC team’s report.
In the case of the 50-year-old sanitary worker, seven of his household contacts, 15 family contacts, 15 community contacts and 11 contacts from work have been traced and put under home-quarantine. Samples of his seven household contacts have been collected.
“Contact tracing takes time, it’s not a one-day task. Till now, the source of infection of the Sector-30 woman has not been traced. The teams are working on it,” said Arun Gupta, health secretary, Chandigarh.
The teams are also using mobile tower locations to trace the areas visited by the patients.
The city reported no new case on Saturday, but reports of 22 samples are pending.
MOHALI CASES HIGH, CURBS TO STAY: DC
With 57 Covid-19 cases in Mohali — the highest in Punjab, the district administration has ruled out any relaxations in the curfew.
“The number of positive cases is high and we have not reached the stage of no new cases in 14 days, so there will be no relaxation,” said Girish Dayalan, deputy commissioner, Mohali.
Any violations of the curfew will invite criminal proceedings under the relevant provisions of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, and the Indian Penal Code.
“Jawaharpur village in Dera Bassi has the highest number of cases at 37, and will remain a containment zone, along with the neighbouring Devi Nagar, Haripur Kurha and Mukandpur villages. Buffer zone will extend to 2km beyond the containment zone,” he added.
The DC said, “Comprehensive contact tracing and sampling will continue with the same pace, as it is crucial to effectively combat coronavirus.”
So far total of 919 samples have been tested, of which 838 have been found negative. The results of 24 samples are awaited. As many as 636 people are under home-quarantine, while 1,893 people have completed the quarantine period.
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