Ludhiana woman cremated in dead of night; two sons isolated at civil hospital

The body of a 42-year-old Ludhiana woman, Puja Rani, who was the third covid-19 casualty from Punjab and the first from the district, was cremated at the Gaughat

The body of a 42-year-old Ludhiana woman, Puja Rani, who was the third covid-19 casualty from Punjab and the first from the district, was cremated at the Gaughat crematorium, in the dead of the night, at 2am on Tuesday. She had been declared dead at Rajindra Hospital, Patiala, at 6pm on Monday.

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To control the spread of the infection, only two sons of the woman and health officials were allowed to be present. The two sons are now under isolation at the civil hospital. Her younger son works as driver and elder one is a peon at Guru Nanak Bhawan. The health department has advised people who came in contact with her sons to self-isolate.

3 doctors among 58 identified

contacts asked to self-isolate

Since the death, 33 contacts of Rani, who worked at a factory near Samrala Chowk, were asked to self-isolate on Monday night. On Tuesday, 25 more persons, including the medical staff deployed at civil hospital were also asked to self-isolate. Samples of three children of Rani, her brother-in- law Sukhwinder Singh, and two other relatives have been sent for covid-19 testing.

Three doctors, two staff nurses and a Class-4 employee, who came in direct contact with the patient, have also been instructed to self-isolate. The private ambulance driver, who the woman’s family had hired to take her to Patiala, has also been advised home quarantine.

With her brother-in-law Sukhvinder claiming that Rani had visited civil hospital for treatment from March 24, some trainee doctors deployed in isolation wards have been asked to go on leave.

Quarters cordoned

off; colony sanitised

With palpable panic among residents of Amarpura Colony, a congested locality marked by dingy small quarters, police cordoned off Rani’s house in the area on Monday. In Shimalpuri too, where Sukhwinder, along with his 10 family members, have been quarantined, the house was sealed. The Amarpura quarter, where Rani had been living as tenant for a year, was sanitised.

Sukhwinder, whose own sample report is awaited, expressed disbelief that Rani had died due to the virus infection. “Rani had stopped going to work since March 11. She did not step out of the house. We are shocked as to how did she get the infection. No other family member has fallen sick for 15 days. We demand a reexamination of her samples.”

Strap/Blurb

Samples of six relatives, including three children, sent for testing; medical staff who came in direct contact with victim instructed to self-isolate