In Punjab’s Covid-19 hotspot, seven more cured, to be discharged soon
JALANDHAR Seven more people, including a 78-year-old man and a two-year-old boy, were declared cured of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar on Tuesday.
With this, a total of eight people, five of them family members of preacher Baldev Singh, Punjab’s first coronavirus casualty, have recovered out of the total 18 positive patients under treatment at the Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar civil hospital.
Fateh Singh, the son of Baldev Singh, was discharged from hospital on Sunday.
The seven people discharged comprise the three grand-daughters and a two-year-old grandson besides Baba Gurbachan Singh, the head of Dera Bhai Ghaniya Singh, Pathlawa, and Daljinder Singh, a resident of Jhikka, both of who had returned from Germany via Italy along with Baldev Singh, and Pathlawa village sarpanch Harpal Singh.
All of them had tested positive on March 20.
After treatment, they tested negative for Covid-19 on Sunday and their second sample was collected on Monday.
Seventy-year-old Baldev Singh was a native of Pathlawa village in Banga sub-division and died after a heart attack on March 18. His sample results were received a day after his death and showed he was suffering from Covid-19. Twenty-seven of his contacts, including 14 of his family members, tested positive.
Two other minor grandchildren of Baldev Singh tested negative for the first time on Tuesday. Their second sample results will determine if they can be discharged.
TIMELY TRACING, ISOLATION HELPED
Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar deputy commissioner Vinay Bublani and senior superintendent of police Alka Meena met all seven and congratulated them for making a recovery. Bublani said that the have been shifted from the isolation ward to quarantine ward and will be discharged soon.
He said the recovery of the patients was the result of the efforts of the district administration and health department in timely tracing of patients and keeping them in isolation.
“The district has not seen a single case since March 26 and we are hopeful that the rest of the patients will be cured. We will not be a coronavirus hotspot soon,” an upbeat Bublani said, giving credit to the civil, health and police administration for implementing disease control measures.
Senior medical officer, civil hospital, Dr Harwinder Singh said that it was a challenge for him and other hospital staff because the family was in trauma due to chain of events. “We counselled them and will continue our efforts to boost their morale,” he said.
In Punjab’s Doaba region, which lies between Beas and Sutlej rivers, 33 Covid-19 cases, including two deaths, have been reported so far. They comprise 19 cases in SBS Nagar, seven in Hoshiarpur, six in Jalandhar and one in Kapurthala.
Of the 33, nine people have recovered so far.
Blurb: Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar offers hope as five members of state’s first coronavirus casualty test negative