Ludhiana village sealed as Tablighi follower’s nephew tests positive

A dairy owner by profession, the 59-year-old Tablighi Jamaat follower had returned from the congregation in Delhi on March 19 and stayed at the masjid on Tibba Road till March 26.

A day after a 59-year-old Tablighi Jamaat follower’s 15-year-old nephew tested positive for the novel coronavirus (Covid-19), the Ludhiana rural police on Thursday sealed Gure village in Chowki Mann area and its surrounding villages where the family lived. Police have also sealed the deras (kutcha houses) on the outskirts of Pabbian and Sohian villages where the relatives of the two Covid-19 patients were living.

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Chowki Mann police in-charge Gurdeep Singh said the 15-year-old boy had also accompanied his uncle to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi.

A dairy owner by profession, the 59-year-old Tablighi Jamaat follower had returned from the congregation in Delhi on March 19 and stayed at the masjid on Tibba Road till March 26. He was tested positive on Monday.

So far the health department has collected the swab samples of 12 family members of the 59-year-old and put over two dozen contacts under quarantine. According to the health department, the condition of man and his nephew is stable.

Sharing details, IG, Ludhiana Range, Jaskaran Singh said, “We had received a list of Jamaat followers and all of them have been traced and tested. We have sealed the deras and kept all the contacts of Covid-19 positive patients in isolation. On Sunday, a 26-year-old from Rajgarh village, also a Tablighi Jamaat member, had tested positive for coronavirus. Luckily, all of them live on the outskirts so it became easy to identify their contacts and isolate them.”

Khanna senior medical officer (SMO) Rajinder Gulati said the sample reports of seven relatives of the 26-year-old man were found to be negative.