2 test positive in Ludhiana, Hoshiarpur; state tally 48

Two more positive cases of Covid-19 were reported in Punjab on Wednesday, taking the state’s tally of the infected patients to 48.

A 58-year-old man from Hoshiarpur district’s Pensran village was referred to Guru Nanak Dev Hospital, Amritsar, after he tested positive on Wednesday.

In Ludhiana , a 69-year-old woman from Shimlapuri locality was tested positive for the virus. She is undergoing treatment at a private hospital on Chandigarh Road. According to civil surgeon Dr Rajesh Bagga, the woman had visited Mohali on March 17 to meet her niece. On March 23, she was rushed to a private hospital for fever, dry cough and respiratory issues. She was tested for Covid-19 on Thursday in which she was found positive for the virus. She is the fifth Covid-19 case from Ludhiana.

Amritsar civil surgeon Dr Prabhdeep Kaur Johal said, “A new patient referred from the Hoshiarpur civil hospital is Covid-19 positive as reported from the Viral Research and Diagnostic Laboratory of Government Medical College, Patiala, on April 1. The patient has diabetes besides fever, cough and breathlessness. The patient is a high risk case.”

Punjab special chief secretary Karan Bir Singh Sidhu also confirmed the news by tweeting, “He is a primary contact of a UK-returned woman, his sister. They were under home quarantine.”

FAMILY’S SAMPLES SENT FOR TESTING

The patient was referred to Amritsar as he was not showing improvement since he was admitted to the civil hospital in Hoshiarpur on March 29.

Hoshiarpur civil surgeon Dr Jasbir Singh said that the man had received his sister and her family at Delhi airport on March 13. The four members of his sister’s family were asymptomatic but now that their contact has been diagnosed with coronavirus, their samples have also been sent for examination, the civil surgeon said.

So far, six people, including Harbhajan Singh of Moranwali who died last week, have tested positive for Covid-19 in Hoshiarpur district and all belong to Posi block. Pensran village was sealed and the samples of 41 contacts of the infected person have been collected.