4 of PGIMER attendant’s family test positive for Covid-19, live in Mohali’s crowded Nayagaon locality

District’s count increases to 61 even as eight others have been discharged from hospital

District authorities were worried after four persons, including a two-month-old baby girl, related to a Covid-19 patient working as an attendant at Chandigarh’s Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), tested positive on Sunday. They were living in a crowded building in a heavily populated area in Nayagaon, leading to concerns about many others getting infected.

With this, Mohali’s count has gone up to 61, even as two patients were released from Gian Sagar Hospital in Banur, health officials said on Sunday.

The four family members of the 30-year-old PGIMER male staffer, who was diagnosed with the disease on April 17, include his infant daughter; wife, aged 26; brother-in-law, aged 20; and mother-in-law, aged 60; all living together at Adarsh Nagar in Nayagaon.

“The mother and daughter are admitted at PGIMER, where the attendant staffer is also being treated. The mother-in-law and brother-in-law are admitted at Gian Sagar Hospital in Banur,” said Dr Manjit Singh, civil surgeon, Mohali.

40 rooms in building where family lived

About 611 families living in the area, declared a containment zone, had also been tested and samples of 13 were negative, he added. The building in which the family lived had 40 rooms, all rented.

Though the PGIMER attendant is asymptomatic as of now, doctors at the hospital are investigating the source of the investigation, said Girish Dayalan, deputy commissioner .

About 640 persons were under quarantine with 1,874 successfully completing the quarantine period, Dayalan added.

Eight persons had been discharged from hospitals and two had died.

No fresh case in Jawaharpur village

Of the 61 cases, 38 were from Jawaharpur village in Dera Bassi, declared a containment zone, though no fresh case has been reported from there in the last five days.

The patients discharged from the Banur hospital include a 64-year-old woman from Sector 91 and a 62-year-old resident of Sector 68 in Mohali, who were admitted on April 4 and April 6, respectively. The former reportedly picked up the infection from a 69-year-old woman from Ludhiana who died after testing positive on March 31. The latter attended the Tablighi Jamaat Markaz in Delhi last month, Dr Singh said.

“We are in process of discharging patients and in a week’s time, around 10 admitted at Gian Sagar Hospital will go home. If two consecutive samples return negative, we will discharge the patient. The good news is all patients are responding well to the treatment,” he added.