CHANDIGARH: With four fresh cases, the tally of positive cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Punjab has reached seven.
The new positive cases include a 73-year-old Mohali woman, whose 69-year-old NRI sister was confirmed positive on Friday after she returned from the United Kingdom. Both sisters stayed together in Phase 3A of Mohali and are now admitted to Fortis Hospital there.
A 42-year-old resident of Sector 69, Mohali, who also flew back from the UK and got admitted at Government Multi-Specialty Hospital, Sector 16, Chandigarh, has tested positive. His condition is stable.
The third Mohali resident who tested positive is a friend of Chandigarh’s first coronavirus patient, the 23-year-old woman resident of Sector 21. The 25-year-old woman is a resident of Phase 5, Mohali, and is suspected of having contracted the infection when she went to pick up her friend from Amritsar international airport on March 15. At present, the friend has been kept in isolation and is stable at civil hospital, Phase 6, Mohali.
The fourth positive case is a 68-year-old man of Moranwali village in Hoshiarpur’s Garhshankar sub division who was in contact with the elderly coronavirus victim of Banga.
After contact tracing, a health department team took him and five members of his family to the Hoshiarpur civil hospital on Thursday night. His samples were sent to the government medical college in Amritsar he tested positive. The family members had objected to their quarantine and villagers even protested outside the civil hospital’s emergency ward on Friday, demanding their release. The family includes a two-year-old child. After preliminary examination, the five family members were sent back to their village. They have been kept in isolation at home.
Hoshiarpur civil surgeon Dr Jasbir Singh said the family is under specific observation. He said 44 people of six villages near Banga have been quarantined.
The six family members of the 70-year-old resident of Pathlawa village in Banga town who died due to COVID-19 recently were shifted to the civil hospital in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar (Nawanshahr) on Friday night and kept in isolation, Dr Harwinder Singh said.
BRAKES ON BUS SERVICE
A group of ministers formed by the Punjab government to assess the situation arising out of the coronavirus outbreak is meeting on Saturday. The Punjab government put brakes on public transport to check the spread of the disease. It has, however, allowed government buses on 60 main routes for the convenience of people.
State transport minister Razia Sultana made an urgent announcement that skeletal services operated by Punjab Roadways/Punbus and PRTC will not ply their buses on Sunday. She said that these services on 50 identified routes would be operational from Monday onward.
She directed that buses operated should be disinfected properly and should ensure that not more than 50% of the seats are filled and proper distance is maintained between passengers. The revised schedule should be made widely available to people at bus stands and other places.
She asked people to avoid non-essential travel and go out of home only for emergencies as this will help contain the virus.
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