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Coronavirus in Punjab: Source of two Patiala men’s infection a mystery
Both men, residents of Patiala, have no travel or contact history; 50-year-old man had tested positive on April 14, while 35-year-old man was confirmed infected on April 11.
Even as two Covid-19 cases were reported here in the past four days, the district health department has failed to trace the source of infection of both the patients.
As per the health department, in both the cases, the patients had no travel history and never came in contact with any other Covid-19 patient.
On April 14, a 50-year-old resident of Safabadi Gate of Patiala city had tested positive for coronavirus, while on April 11, a 35-year-old gardener, working and staying at the official residence of a Punjab Civil Services (PCS) officer, had tested positive. Both patients are admitted in the isolation ward of Government Medical College and Hospital here.
“We have completed contact tracing of both patients. We also gathered all information from their relatives and other sources about whom the patients had met recently or if they travelled out of the city,” said an official seeking anonymity.
He added, “The Safabadi Gate resident is part of a langar sewa group in the city and we are gathering details on his past movements.”
Earlier, the reports of six primary contacts of the gardener had turned out negative. The reports of nine primary contacts, including the wife and two children of the 50-year-old patient, are awaited.
Patiala civil surgeon Dr Harish Malhotra said no concrete information had surfaced so far.
“Our rapid response units and surveillance teams are on the job to identify the primary carrier of the virus in these two cases. They didn’t have any travel history,” Malhotra said.
He added that both the patients did not have any connection with each other. They had both shown the same symptoms, including high fever and sore throat with cough, the civil surgeon said.
Patiala district has reported three positive cases so far. One of them had travelled to Dubai in March. After full recovery, the 21-year-old patient was discharged from the hospital on Tuesday.
