Half of Punjab’s positive cases from rural areas

Of 39 patients in urban centres, 15 are contacts of those with travel history

CHANDIGARH : A little more than half of the coronavirus cases in Punjab have been reported in the rural belt, in contrast with a majority of Indian states where the spread of the disease is concentrated largely in urban centres.

Till Tuesday evening, of the 99 positive patients in Punjab, 49 belong to villages whereas 39 are from towns and cities. The rest of the 11 patients, all belonging to the Muslim community, are from outside the state. Of these, 5 have been tested positive in Mansa, 4 in Moga and 2 in Fatehgarh Sahib. Barring the four Moga cases, others attended the Tabligi Jamaat in Delhi’s Nizamuddin area last month.

While the patients found infected in Moga are from Andheri district in Maharashtra, those in Mansa are from Chhattisgarh. Two women found positive in Fatehgarh Sahib belong to Maharashtra’s Aurangabad.

Of the 49 positive cases in the rural belt, 32 are from the Doaba region comprising Jalandhar , SBS Nagar, Hoshiarpur and Kapurthala.

Interestingly, 28 of them got infected after they came in contact with Punjab’s first corona casualty, Baldev Singh, and his associates Gurbachan Singh and Daljinder Singh, who returned from Germany via Italy on March 7. Baldev, 70, died on March 18.

Also, Mohali district has a significant concentration of Covid-19 patients in villages. It topped the tally among all Punjab districts on Tuesday with 26 cases of which 12, including 11 from Jawaharpur village alone, were reported in rural clusters.

A village panchayat member, a local Congress leader, is believed to have transmitted the virus to most of those infected. The health department is trying to trace the source where he got the infection.

A WORRYING DRIFT?

State nodal officer for Covid-19, Dr Gagandeep Singh Grover, an epidemiologist, says it is too early to spot a trend in Punjab as the total cases are not that high.

“Moreover, if you will see the figures in rural areas, the majority of those infected were either direct or indirect contacts of SBS Nagar’s Baldev Singh and the Mohali panchayat member. The virus spread is happening in urban areas too,” said Dr Grover.

Of the 39 cases reported in urban centres, 15 were direct or indirect contacts of those with foreign travel history whereas the source of infection in other cases is still unknown, reveals the data.

A total of 16 persons found Covid-19 positive in the state attended the Nizamuddin congregation.

Special chief secretary KBS Sidhu in a tweet said the number of total jamaat attendees identified by the state government rose to 599, of whom 559 were traced.

Of these, 430 are still in Punjab with 289 having been found negative and the results of 125 are awaited.

STATE NODAL OFFICER FOR COVID-19 SAYS IT IS TOO EARLY TO SPOT A TREND IN PUNJAB AS THE TOTAL CASES ARE NOT THAT HIGH