E-Paper
Panchkula cases mount to 17 as two more test positive
62-year-old and 27-year-old from Khuda Baksh village in Pinjore had attended Sikar Jamaat
The total number of coronavirus cases in Panchkula reached 17 on Friday after a 62-year-old man and a 27-year-old youth from Khuda Baksh village in Pinjore tested positive.
The two had attended a Tablighi Jamaat event in Sikar, Rajasthan, taking the count of Jamaat attendees who tested positive to six. The youth is a relative of the 18-year-old boy of the same village, who had tested positive on Thursday night.
Chief medical officer (CMO) Dr Jasjeet Kaur said the two patients were already under quarantine.
As many as 130 persons who had attended Tablighi Jamaat events in different states including Maharashtra and Rajasthan have been quarantined at Nada Sahib and Mouli village in Panchkula.
Meanwhile six new cases, also with Tablighi Jammat link, surfaced in Palwal, taking Haryana’s count to 223 on Friday.
21 discharged in state
Meanwhile, the state recorded the highest number of cured patients a day with 21 being discharged.
According to the official bulletin, seven are from Palwal, three each from Nuh and Yamunanagar, two each from Faridabad, Karnal and Sirsa and one each from Charkhi Dadri and Jind. As many as 18 of them had Tablighi link.
However, there were reports from Ambala of a woman patient being discharged too. She is the relative of a local who had died in Chandigarh and was later tested positive for Covid-19, confirmed Ambala chief medical officer Dr Kuldeep Singh.
PVT DOC BOOKED FOR NEGLIGENCE
Meanwhile, following the Panchkula CMO’s complaint, police have booked a private doctor in Sector 11 for negligence while dealing with the Covid-19 woman patient from Sector 15.
The complaint said in violation of the protocol for initial treatment, the doctor neither informed about the woman, nor refer her to the civil hospital despite detecting a spot in her X-ray report. The doctor had reportedly prescribed the woman antibiotic medication.
The woman’s condition had started deteriorating on April 2, but she initially chose to self-medicate. On April 6, she visited the doctor’s clinic in Sector 11 and went to the civil hospital after being referred for a CT scan on April 11. The woman is the prime source of infection of eight other members of her family.
A case has been registered against the doctor under Section 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at the Sector 5 police station.
Meanwhile, the local unit of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) condemned the action. In his statement, Dr Ramneek Singh Bedi, vice-chairman IMA Hospital Board of India, said, “All doctors are working hard to combat this disaster. Punishing and blaming a doctor in these times demoralises the whole medical fraternity.”
