FIVE MORE TEST POSITIVE, COUNT RISES TO 46

AMRITSAR/LUDHIANA/MOHALI: The count of coronavirus cases reached 46 in Punjab on Wednesday with five more persons, including a Padma Shri awardee former “raagi”, testing positive for the disease.

Three fresh cases have been reported from Mohali district and one each from Ludhiana and Amritsar.

In Mohali, two persons were infected after they came in contact with a Chandigarh couple from Canada who had tested positive earlier. A 45-year-old man, a resident of Jagatpura in Mohali, was infected after he came in contact with another coronavirus patient.

A 72-year-old woman from Ludhiana residing in the neighbourhood of a 42-yearold coronavirus patient, who died in a Patiala hospital on Monday, tested positive.

In Amritsar, Padma Shri awardee and a former “hazoori ragi” of the Golden Temple, has been tested positive , Amritsar civil surgeon Dr Prabhdeep Kaur Johal said. The 67-year-old “ragi” was referred to Guru Nanak Dev Hospital (GNDH) from Shri Guru Ram Das Hospital on March 30 after he showed Covid-19 symptoms. “A health department team visited his house on March 3 after two guests – his uncle and aunt -- from the US visited him. On March 17, they were found asymptomatic. The ragi went to Chandigarh for a kirtan samagam on March 19 where over 100 people were gathered,” said Dr Johal.

The health department has isolated 11 close contacts of the ragi and four doctors of Government Medical College, Amritsar, have been quarantined

A 72-year-old woman living in the neighbourhood of Puja Rani, 42, the first Covid-19 casualty of Ludhiana, has tested positive for coronavirus.

The elderly woman lives near Puja’s house.

Ludhiana senior medical officer has sought an explanation from three medical officers and eight members of the nursing staff that why Puja was referred to the ESI hospital.