60 PEOPLE QUARANTINED IN JAMMU, BUDGAM

JAMMU/SRINAGAR: After one of the two cases in Jammu was tested positive on Monday morning, 19 people from densely populated Sarwal locality of the city who were in touch with them have been quarantined at Yatri Niwas base camp meant for the Amarnath yatra pilgrims here.

“They were in contact of the two infected persons, out of which one has been tested positive. A total of 19 people have been quarantined and other people who were in their contact will also be quarantined and kept under surveillance there. Their samples are being taken,” said a senior official of the health department.

Principal secretary and government spokesman Rohit Kansal said the administration was keeping a watch on the situation across the Union Territory.

“400 people are under surveillance in Satwari and Sarwal areas of Jammu. Anganwadi centers in these areas have been closed till March 3. Pilgrims who have arrived earlier are being screened and put on surveillance,” he said.

The UT recorded its first case of coronavirus on Monday after a 63-year-old tested positive. “A 63-year-old woman from Kargil with a travel history to Iran and who lives in Jammu has been tested positive for the Covid 19 infection,” Dr Shafqat Khan, nodal officer in the campaign against coronavirus said.

He said the final report of another case “with high viral load” was awaited.

Two patients who were declared “high viral load cases” are undergoing treatment at the isolation ward of the Government Medical College (GMC) hospital and are in a stable condition.

Another woman, who had returned from Saudi Arabia, was admitted in GMC hospital Doda on Sunday and was kept under observation in an isolation ward, officials said.

Her samples were sent to National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune.

Meanwhile, 41 residents of Kashmir who returned from China and Iran will be quarantined at 76-bed facilities set up at nine isolation wards in Budgam district, district development commissioner (DDC) Tariq Hussain Ganai said on Monday.

“While chairing a meeting to review preparedness for Coronavirus threat, Ganai said that 31 Budgam residents who have returned from Iran and 10 residents from China will be admitted in isolation wards, “the spokesman said.