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5 Covid patients recover in Himachal, bringing down active cases to 2
Health authorities not sure of source of infection in case of both patients
Himachal Pradesh is hopeful of becoming a Covid-19 free state with five patients recovering in two days bringing down the number of active cases to five.
Two patients are from Hamirpur district, two from Una and one from Chamba.
Among the Hamirpur patients who recovered on Friday, one is a migrant woman labourer from Uttar Pradesh, who lives in Hamirpur along with her family, while the other is a youngster from Nadaun, where he works as a principal of a private school.
Three, who recovered on Saturday, are all Tablighi Jamaat workers or their primary contacts. Two are from Una and One from Chamba.
“Five patients have recovered in the state in two days as they twice testing negative for Covid-19. They will remain under observation in an institutional quarantine facility for two weeks,” said additional chief secretary, health, RD Dhiman.
The health authorities are, however, not clear how the two Hamirpur patients contracted the infection as the source remains a mystery. They were detected with coronavirus during a random sampling at a flu clinic at the Hamirpur medical college on April 17.
The woman had returned from her native place in UP on March 3, but she tested positive a month and a half later. The Nadaun patient has no travel history. The health department screened 270 of their contacts, including 97 primary contacts of the two, but none of them tested positive.
Failing to trace the source of infection, the health authorities have referred these cases to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) after getting their anti-body profiling done.
With the recovery of the five patients, the number of active cases in the state has come down to two.
As many as 19 patients have recovered in two weeks.
So far, 15 patients have recovered in Una, five in Solan, six in Chamba, four in Kangra, two in Hamirpur and one in Sirmaur.
A total of 40 Covid-19 cases, including a fatality, have been reported in the state.
Four patients from Solan have shifted out of the state for treatment.
Una was the worst-hit district with 16 cases, followed by Solan with nine cases. Six cases were reported from Chamba, five from Kangra and two each from Hamirpur and Sirmaur.
