Haryana, Punjab record highest single-day spike in corona cases
All 33 fresh infections in Haryana have Nizamuddin connection, total count 129 District now has 26 cases --- most in state; overall tally jumps to 99
CHANDIGARH: Haryana and Punjab on Tuesday registered biggest single-day spike in Covid-19 cases.
While 33 persons tested positive in Haryana, taking its tally to 129, Punjab registered 19 fresh infections that increased its patient count to 99.
Of the fresh cases reported in Haryana, 23 are from Nuh district, seven from Faridabad, two from Gurugram and one from Jind, the health department said in its evening bulletin. All these have Tablighi Jamaat connection. As many 10 foreign nationals -- six from Sri Lanka, and one each from Nepal, Thailand, Indonesia and South Africa -- and 50 people from other states of India are among the 129 cases reported in Haryana, said the health department.
With this jump, Haryana also became the 14th state in the country and the first in north of Delhi to have crossed the three-digit number. Of the total 129 cases, 89 have the Jamaat link. State health minister Anil Vij maintained that the spike in the number of COVID-19 cases is due to many Jamaat members testing positive. Vij, who also holds the home portfolio, said 1,526 Jamaat members, including 107 foreigners, have been tracked down in the state so far. “Jamaat members constitute a sizeable chunk of the total active cases in the state,” he said.
Of the 19 new patients in Punjab, three are those who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat gathering in Delhi, officials said.
With seven new cases, Mohali (26) now tops the state’s COVID-19 tally, surpassing Nawanshahr (19), another hotspot of the virus . The other fresh cases were reported from Pathankot (six), Moga (4), Mansa (2). In Pathankot, six family members of a 75-year-old coronavirus positive woman, who died on April 5, contracted the infection. All have been admitted to a hospital, said DC GS Khaira.
In Mohali, the fresh cases were reported from village Jawaharpur in Dera Bassi and all of them have been admitted to a hospital in Banur, official said.
In Mansa, two women Tablighi Jamaat members, who attended Nizamuddin congregation last month and were staying at Budhlada, have tested positive, taking total count of positive cases in the district to five.
Mansa senior medical officer Dr Ashok Kumar said the two positive cases are already in isolation at the civil hospital. Four residents of Andheri in Mumbai, who had recently travelled to
Punjab via Delhi, tested positive in Moga.civil surgeon Dr Andesh Kang said these are the first Covid-19 cases from the district .
THIRD COVID DEATH IN J&K
A 54-year-old man died of coronavirus in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday, taking the death toll to three, officials said.