Alarming: 5 from Dera Bassi recover, then test +ve again

MOHALI : Five persons from Dera Bassi subdivision have been retested and found Covid-19 positive after recovering and being released from Gian Sagar Hospital in Banur 15 days back.

The five persons were again tested positive in various hospitals in June, readmitted to Gian Sagar and then discharged later.

According to the revised discharge policy , patients discharged from hospital were not retested and allowed to go home after 10 days if they were asymptomatic.

That could be the reason why perhaps most of them might not have recovered completely or could still be carrying remnants of the virus, experts said.

“I was discharged on June 20 from Gian Sagar Hospital and they did not do a retest, but when I applied for a fitness report on July 6 from the Lalru Civil Hospital, my samples tested positive,” said a patient from Dappar in Dera Bassi who did not wish to be named.

Another person from Shivam Complex in Dera Bassi said he was discharged from Gian Sagar on June 21 and moved to Meritorious School in Sector 70 for institutional quarantine. “Doctors took a sample as a routine precaution and I tested positive on June 23,” he said.

Reacting to the development, Mohali deputy commissioner Girish Dayalan said he would be asking the district civil surgeon for a report.

However, Dayalan added: “One case I remember is that a person was discharged and again came in contact with a positive person and tested positive. As per revised policy, there is no retesting as most of the patients are asymptomatic.”

Dera Bassi subdivision in Mohali district, meanwhile, is struggling to shed the tag of a coronavirus hotspot, as it accounts for more than half of the Covid-19 cases reported so far. The first case was reported on April 4 in Jawaharpur village and since then the flow of patients has not stopped.

Of the 423 cases reported in the district, the highest, 31, was recorded on Monday. In the last three months, 170 cases have been recorded in Dera Bassi .

Dera Bassi subdivision comprises of Dera Bassi town, Zirakpur and Lalru with a population of around four lakh. All the towns are located on DelhiChandigarh highway.