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Posted: May 11, 2020 6:37:05 AM
A Health Department official said that of the eight positive health officials from outside the Ropar district, seven are from Mohali and one is from Chandigarh. (Representative photo)
The Punjab Health Department became nervous on Sunday after 14 state health officials, including at least two doctors, released in the Ropar district tested positive for a new coronavirus. Ropar’s deputy commissioner, Sonali Giri, said six of the 14 health officials posted in the district, including two doctors, belonged to the Ropar district and continued to be hailed from abroad.
A Health Department official said that of the eight positive health officials from outside the Ropar district, seven are from Mohali and one is from Chandigarh.
An official said an exercise was being conducted to determine exactly where health officials were in the district. Ropar SMO was one of two district doctors who tested positive. Speaking on the phone, the SMO said he had been isolated. Ropar DC Giri said the 46 people tested positive for the district on Sunday, including those who came from outside the district.
Punjab Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu said the health officials who tested positive were “asymptomatic”. He added that, apart from the doctors, the officials who tested positive were paramedical personnel.
Sidhu said contact tracking was on and that samples were also being taken from those who contacted these patients. According to the press release released by the state government, Punjab reported 61 new cases of new coronaviruses on Sunday, bringing the total to 1,823. Punjab has so far reported 31 deaths from COVID-19.
Of 1,823 positive results, more than 1,200 are pilgrims who returned from Nanded, representing about 67 percent of the total positive cases in the state. There are 1,626 active cases and 166 patients have recovered in the state so far. Of the total of 40,962 samples, 35,293 have been negative and results of 3,845 are expected.
In Amritsar, a prisoner housed in Amritsar Central submitted a production order from the Amritsar rural police to test positive for a new coronavirus. He came into contact with prisoners in the prison and with police officers, who questioned him during the police arrest. The prisoner was presented twice in court on May 6 and 8.
Amritsar’s chief judicial magistrate, Baljinder Singh, has written a letter to the Amritsar deputy commissioner to evaluate the judge, staff and police officer, who were dealing with the prisoner. Meanwhile, Amritsar police want to reevaluate the prisoner as officials believe he had no travel history and that the source of the infection was unknown.
“The prisoner was taken to pretrial detention and, according to instructions, he was screened for COVID-19 before being sent back to jail. It is asymptomatic, but positive. So now, he has been admitted to the Guru Nanak Dev Hospital, Amritsar. But we want to do the test again because he had no travel history and the source of the infection is unknown, ”said Chatiwind SHO Suhail Qasim. An Amritsar prison official said: “We do not believe that he has contracted an infection from the prison. He was in police custody and possibly contracted an infection during that period.
We have been taking all precautionary measures inside the jail. ” In the state, maximum positive cases of new coronaviruses have been reported from the Amritsar district (295), followed by Jalandhar (175) and Tarn Taran (157)
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