19 fresh cases in Punjab

PATHANKOT/AMRITSAR/HOSHIARPUR: Nineteen more persons, including a 27-year-old youth arrested on charges of attempt to murder and an Afghanistan-returned doctor, tested positive for the coronavirus in Punjab on Sunday, taking the state’s tally of those infected by the disease so far to 2,154.

The doctor and the 27-year-old accused were among five persons found infected in Amritsar. “The doctor, a resident of Majitha Road in Amritsar, reached the city three days ago,” civil surgeon Dr Jugal Kishore said.

“The 27-year-old was arrested on May 22 and his swab samples were taken the next day. We are identifying the police personnel who came in contact with him. The cops will be home-quarantined and their samples will be taken,” said police commissioner Sukhchain Singh Gill.

Three others tested positive are a 40-year-old man from Rani Ka Bagh, a woman who had returned to the city from Uttar Pradesh and is a close contact of a Covid-19 patient. Seven fresh cases were reported in Pathankot district . A resident of Lamini, who had gone to his in-laws’ house in Amritsar, was taken to hospital after he had flu-like symptoms. Six family members of an eatery owner found infected on Friday also tested positive.

In Hoshiarpur, four more contacts of a Jalalpur resident, who recently died due to Covid-19 in a Jalandhar hospital, tested positive for the virus. One of them is an 81-year-old woman. Five contacts of the deceased had tested positive three days ago.

Also, Gurdaspur district reported two fresh cases. The patients, aged 31 and 34, are residents of Batala. Both worked in Mumbai, Maharashtra, and returned home five days ago.

Besides, a 25-year-old truck driver of Machiwada village in Ferozepur district was tested positive for the disease on Sunday.

His sample was taken in Jammu on May 18 and his location was traced to Gujarat’s Vadodara district where he was isolated in a hospital. The youth visited his village on May 19, the officials said.