Swine flu: 3-year-old boy dies in Amritsar

CHILD WAS TAKEN TO A PRIVATE HOSPITAL WHEN HE HAD HIGH FEVER AFTER FAMILY RETURNED FROM CANADA; NEGATIVE FOR CORONAVIRUS

AMRITSAR : A three-year-old boy on Sunday died of swine flu at a private hospital in Amritsar where he was admitted with high fever soon after his family landed at the local airport on their return from Canada.

This is the first incident of swine flu death in Punjab this year.

Amritsar civil surgeon Dr Prabhdeep Kaur Johal said, “The child was kept in an isolation ward of the private hospital. But he died on Sunday morning. Since the family’s flight halted at an airport in China, we were suspecting the child of carrying the coronavirus which has claimed several lives in the neighbouring country.”

“The health department sent his blood samples to the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, which on Monday confirmed that he was swine flu (H1N1) positive. But he was tested negative for coronavirus,” Dr Johal said.

His parents were administered Tamiflu medicine as a preventive measure, she added.

The victim’s family hails from the city’s Akash Avenue locality and had migrated to Canada in April last year. They returned to India on Saturday to attend a family function here.

“The health department has started coronarvirus screening of the passengers at the Amritsar airport. The airport authorities have been told to keep a close watch on the passengers arriving from foreign countries, especially China,” Dr Johal added.

Amritsar deputy commissioner Shiv Dular Singh Dhillon along with a team of senior health officials visited the airport to take stock of the arrangements to screen the passengers at the aviation facility.

The deputy commissioner directed the officials concerned to keep a vigil, especially on the passengers arriving from China.

The state health department has recorded 69 suspected and 5 positive swine flu cases in Punjab in 2020.