Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar: Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar district in the heart of Punjab saw a 200% rise in coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases after 57 people back from a pilgrimage to Takht Hazur Sahib in Nanded, Maharashtra, tested positive on Sunday.
Just a day earlier, five Nanded returnees had tested positive and the district count stood at 28 cases.
SBS Nagar civil surgeon Dr Rajinder Prasad Bhatia said that with Sunday morning’s count, the district had recorded a total of 85 coronavirus patients, including 18 cured and one fatality, since the pandemic began in March.
Health officials said that a total of 130 samples were collected of persons who returned from Maharashtra out of which 47 tested negative, while the results of eight were awaited and the samples 12 people were being sent again.
NO NEED TO PANIC: DC
SBS Nagar deputy commissioner Vinay Bublani said that there is no need to panic. “We had quarantined pilgrims at two institutions the day they came back from Nanded as a precautionary measure. Those who tested positive are being sent to the isolation ward of the civil hospital at SBS Nagar. The pilgrims who tested negative have been quarantined in the institutions earmarked for a few days before they are allowed to travel to their native places,” Bublani said.
HOTSPOT AND BACK
{{/usCountry}}HOTSPOT AND BACK
{{/usCountry}}SBS Nagar had reported 19 coronavirus cases in Punjab in March and had become the state’s first Covid-19 hotspot.
The district reported its first positive case since March 26 after Balachaur youth who returned from Jammu and Kashmir tested positive on April 25.