8 more Nanded pilgrims test +ve

FARIDKOT/LUDHIANA: Eight more people, including four who returned from Takht Hazur Sahib in Maharashtra’s Nanded, tested positive for Covid-19 in Punjab on Friday, taking the total tally in Punjab to 2,005.

According to officials familiar with the development, the four Nanded returnees are residents of Sandhwan and Chand Bhan villages in Faridkot, which has reported 52 cases so far.

Civil surgeon Dr Rajinder Kumar said the patients have been kept at isolation wards.

In a related development, news agency PTI has reported that 500 patients recovered in the state on Friday. Among the discharged patients, most were pilgrims who had returned from Hazoor Sahib at Nanded in Maharashtra last month, a health official was quoted as saying.

A health official said the patients were discharged following the Centre’s revised guidelines, which says people infected with coronavirus, with very mild or mild and pre-symptomatic cases can be discharged after 10 days of symptom onset and with no fever for three days.As per the Centre’s new guidelines, no test for COVID-19 is required before discharge in such cases.

Meanwhile, in Ludhiana, sixteen police officials have been asked to self isolate after two persons who were found dead tested positive for Covid-19, days after their bodies were found.

One of them, Karan Kumar (15) of Janak Puri, was murdered while the body of the other person was found near the rail tracks near the Gill area on May 12.

A senior official said the police officials carried out preliminary examination of the crime scene.