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Dera Bassi count surges to 21, Mohali’s to 36
Now, 21 people — who are mostly from the same family, including sarpanch and two panches — are infected in Jawaharpur village, as Mohali sees highest single-day spike in cases across tricity
Ten new Covid-19 positive cases were reported from Jawaharpur village of Dera Bassi in Mohali district on Wednesday, taking the district count to 36, highest in Punjab as well as the tricity.
Since a 42-year-old year panch of the village tested positive on April 4, 20 more people —14 part of his extended family — have tested positive for the infection.
Over the past few days, 118 samples were collected from the village to check for community spread, and 10 samples tested positive on Wednesday. Four of them are from the panch’s family. As many as 80 samples were negative and results of 28 samples are awaited.
Situated on the Ambala-Chandigarh highway, Jawaharpur village has a population of 3,000.
With the village becoming the new disease hotspot, the district administration has sealed it and the neighbouring Devigarh and Mehmudpur villages, deploying 75 cops with three PCR vehicles to ensure no movement.
Those testing positive from the panch’s family include a 53-year-old panch of the village, a 56-year-old man, who is the sarpanch’s paternal uncle, and two other cousins of the 42-year-old panch. The other six patients include an employee of the public health department in Chandigarh and another runs a shop in the village. They all either came in contact with the panch or the sarpanch, who had tested positive on Tuesday.
“None of the 21 patients has travel history. Most of them were asymptomatic and detected only though testing,” said Girish Dayalan, the Mohali deputy commissioner.
He said some Tablighi Jamaat members had stayed in the village, but left before anyone could get information about them.
“We suspect that the panch came in contact with his factory workers, who had met the Tablighi Jamaat members, which led to spread of the virus,” the DC said, adding that so far they had traced 138 contacts of the 36 positive patients in Mohali district, which will help in containing the spread of the virus.
After the 42-year-old panch tested positive on April 4, his father (67), brother (38) and wife (43) were confirmed to have contracted the infection on April 6.
A day later, his mother (61), brother’s wife (35), and her children, aged 16 and 12, also tested positive. The village head (sarpanch), aged 39, her husband (43), who is the panch’s cousin, and their daughter (19) were also confirmed positive on Tuesday.
All 21 patients are admitted to Gian Sagar Hospital in Banur.
“The village has been totally sealed. No one is allowed to move out. Our effort is to contain the cases in the village itself. Further sampling of all family members of those testing positive will be done,” said Manjit Singh, civil surgeon, Mohali.
INFECTION’S SOURCE STILL A MYSTERY
Authorities are still trying to track down the source that brought the infection to Jawaharpur village. “We are working to ascertain the source, which is still not clear,” said Dera Bassi sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) Kuldeep Bawa.
The panch owns a tent house and a tile factory, and had come in contact with eight labourers, who had further met attendees of Tablighi Jamaat’s Markaz event in Delhi. However, none of these contacts is positive.
He also frequently travelled to Delhi for supplies for his tent house. “We are tracing his travel history using mobile phone locations and call details,” said Harmandeep Singh Hans, superintendent of police (investigations), Mohali.
HELPDESKS SET UP
As three villages have been sealed in Dera Bassi, a helpdesk has been set up in each village to assist villagers. “The villagers will call the helpdesk, and we will provide whatever they need at their doorstep. No one will be allowed to move out,” said SDM Bawa. The villages are home to a large number of migrant workers, who will be provided food by the administration. Announcements have been made from local gurdwaras and temples directing people to stay indoors.
NO FRESH CASE IN CHANDIGARH, PANCHKULA
No fresh Covid-19 case was reported in Chandigarh for the sixth consecutive day on Wednesday while in Panchkula, too, no new case surfaced for eighth day in a row.
However, reports of seven suspect cases are awaited in Chandigarh.
In Panchkula, even as all 50 people who had attended Tablighi Jamaat events have tested negative in the past two days, the health department on Wednesday confirmed 65 more such persons have been admitted to the isolation ward of the civil hospital and their samples have been collected for testing.
These people were put up in quarantine facilities at the Nada Sahib gurdwara and a village in Raipur Rani last week. Reports of 12 other suspect cases are also awaited.
Meanwhile, the PGIMER, Chandigarh, while appreciating the UT administration’s decision to make masks mandatory in public places, cautioned that there is no need to wear N95 masks by the general public as these are required by healthcare workers screening patients.
