E-Paper
Kanika tests corona positive for third time
Bollywood singer Kanika Kapoor tested coronavirus positive for the third time on Friday, said director of Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences
Bollywood singer Kanika Kapoor tested coronavirus positive for the third time on Friday, said director of Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS) professor Radha Krishna Dheeman.
“However, her health is stable. She is on gluten-free diet and nurses are being changed every four hours,” Dheeman said and added that the SGPGI tested seven more samples on Friday but all of them turned out to be negative.
Presently, Kanika is the only coronavirus patient undergoing treatment at the SGPGI, since March 20, which has also converted its 220 bed trauma centre into Rajdhani Covid Hospital with 80 ICU beds and 130 isolation beds.
Meanwhile, the search for contacts of the singer has come to a halt, for now, after a 7-day nationwide exercise.
Health department officials on Friday said they have tracked almost every person she named she was in contact after arrival in India and also those who were named by her contacts. In Lucknow, the list has about 70 names and in the state 268.
“No one among these names have tested positive till now. And as we reached all the names, the search has been halted, for now, unless any one among them tests positive,” said a senior health official.
Kanika had returned from the United Kingdom on March 9 and on March 11 she reached Lucknow. She met people in social gatherings and when she tested positive for coronavirus, the health department decided to track all those who came in contact with her.
“We have monitored all her contacts. Any development will start a fresh exercise. For now, all have been told to remain in quarantine only,” said Dr Vikasendu Agrawal, state surveillance officer.
He said a daily monitoring via telephone is being done to take stock of their health. “Surprisingly, we got utmost cooperation from all contacts, including shopkeepers who immediately shared staff details and sent them in quarantine,” said Dr Agrawal.
A grocery store owner in Lucknow, who was perhaps among the last ones to be traced by the health department looking for contacts of Kanika, said: “Yes sir, she came for 10-minute shopping for some items and here is the list of 28 staff members who were present at the store,”
A massive exercise was conducted that including staff from health and district administration, particularly in Lucknow, where she came to meet her parents, and in Kanpur, where she visited to a relative.
She also met UP’s health minister JP Singh and BJP leader and former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje in a social gathering. All those present in the gathering went into self-quarantine. One of her contacts had moved out of Uttar Pradesh and the department got him traced and tested. Also, details of her international and domestic flights were sent to respective departments and states, Agarwal said.
