Covid-19 outbreak: 4 more test positive in Punjab

Two cases reported in Amritsar, one each in Ludhiana and Barnala

Four fresh cases of the coronavirus were reported in Punjab on Sunday, taking the total number of those infected by the disease to 69.

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In Amritsar, two persons were tested positive with the city witnessing more community spread cases, said civil surgeon Dr Prabhdeep Kaur Johal.

“The wife of a 67-year-old man of Krishna Nagar, who was tested positive for the Covid-19 on Friday, was also found infected on Sunday. The couple is admitted to the isolation ward of the Guru Nanak Dev Hospital (GNDH). Both are stable. Their two sons, a daughter-in-law and an eight-month-old granddaughter, who were also isolated at GNDH, were tested negative,” said Dr Johal.

“Also, a male resident of Chatiwind Gate was tested positive for the virus. He visited the Fortis Hospital Amritsar with breathlessness, fever and cough and was admitted to the isolation ward. He was tested positive at Fortis’s SRL laboratory. This is another case of community spread. The health department has sanitised his house,” she said.

In Ludhiana, a 26- year- old man from Rajgarh village in the district tested positive for the disease, becoming the sixth person to be infected by the virus in the district. The man is among 26 persons who allegedly attended the Tablighi Jamaat in the Nizamuddin area in Delhi and was quarantined at the civil hospital.

But the patient, who runs a dairy with his family on the outskirts of the village, claimed he did not attend the Tablighi Jamaat.

The health department put eight of his family members, including his wife, children and parents, in quarantine at the civil hospital.

In Barnala, a 44-year-old woman was tested positive for the coronavirus on Sunday, becoming the first case of infection in the district. The woman, who has no foreign travel history, was admitted to the civil hospital on April 1 with fever, cough and difficulty in breathing.

The street in the Sekha Road locality where the victim lives was sealed as a precautionary measure.

The patient’s husband works in a paper mill at Dhaula village. The factory management said he did not visited the unit after March 22 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave a call for Janta Curfew and curfew was imposed the next day.

Civil surgeon Dr Gurinderbir Singh said, “Of 25 samples in the district, 24 were found negative. Eleven samples, including two of the patient’s family members, four of his landlord’s family and 5 of medical staff, were sent for testing on Sunday.”