In 2 weeks, no case in Hoshiarpur

Sanjiv Kumar Bakshi

Hoshiarpur, April 15

The district has four active Covid-19 positive patients. Besides, one of the patients has died and two have recovered. The first-ever Covid-19 patient of the state belonged to Hoshiarpur. He was quarantined at GMC, Amritsar, on his arrival from Italy at Amritsar airport.

He has recovered too. One of the positive patients is admitted to GMC, Amritsar, while three are under treatment in the isolation ward of the local civil hospital. No new case has been reported for last 13 days in the district.

Hoshiarpur had its first Covid positive from village Moranwali in Garhshankar — an elderly priest, Harbhajan Singh, who had come in contact with Baldev Singh of Pathlawa village in Nawanshahr. Harbhajan was admitted to the civil hospital here on March 22 and was later shifted to Government Medical College, Amritsar, where he died on March 30.

Extensive door-to-door survey and testing of suspects and contacts of positive patients was done in Moranwali and surrounding villages. Those found in contact with Harbhajan Singh and his family were home quarantined. The four positive cases were from his family and the neighbour’s. Harbhajan’s wife, son, daughter-in-law and a woman in the neighbourhood were found positive and isolated at the civil hospital, while his daughter, grandson and granddaughter were tested negative. Harbhajan’s son Gurpreet has recovered .

Another case had come up in district from Pensra village in Garhshankar. The patients had no foreign travel history and had no contact with any of the Covid-19 patients, but he had gone to bring his sister and her children from Delhi airport. After he was tested positive, 40 samples were taken from his village, all turned negative.

There are 1,592 persons in home quarantine. Out of 1,429 villages in the district, around 1,410 have imposed self-quarantined and a strict vigil is being maintained on the entry and exit points of the villages.

On April 11, 14 persons were quarantined at a dera at Achalpur Jungle in Garhshankar. They had reached from Bathinda and Sultanput Lodhi after a month-long religious affair.

Civil Surgeon Dr Jasbir Singh said 274 samples of 306 (excluding the six found positive) have been reported negative.