Janakpuri patient’s elderly mother tests positive for Covid-19
DELHI/NOIDA:A day after a 46-yearold man from Delhi’s Janakpuri tested positive for the 2019 novel coronavirus (Covid-19) infection, his 69-year-old mother tested positive for the virus Thursday, taking the total cases in Delhi to six.
She is currently in the isolation facility at Dr Ram Manohar Lohia hospital along with her son. Officials said she is not doing too well. “The patient is unstable,” Delhi’s integrated disease surveillance programme cell said Thursday, adding that Covid-19 is known to cause severe symptoms in the aged and those with co-morbid conditions.
The 46-year-old man from Janakpuri, who tested positive Wednesday, had travelled to Japan, Geneva and Italy, before boarding a flight from Italy to India a couple of weeks ago.
Italy has reported the highest number of Covid-19 cases and deaths outside of China, with over 12,000 cases and 827 deaths (till Thursday).
Meanwhile, the health officials of Gautam Budh Nagar is on a major containment and sanitisation exercise after they were informed late Wednesday that the Janakpuri man works for a firm in Sector 80, Noida. Officials said the man was regular to office after returning from Italy.
The company was shut Thursday until further notice and all 707 employees of the company as well as their family members have been asked to remain in home quarantine for the next 14 days. The district is gearing up to surveil about 1,500 persons over the next two weeks.
Officials said he works for a firm that is involved in the manufacturing of leather straps for watches, and had been on a tour of several countries as part of a business trip.
Gautam Budh Nagar chief medical officer Dr Anurag Bhargava said multiple teams are trying to trace persons who came in contact with the Covid-19 patient at his workplace. At least 29 identified persons were in direct contact with the man since his return from Italy. All of them will be tested for Covid-19, Bhargava said.
“The patient had visited multiple countries before boarding a flight from Italy. He was scanned at the airport when he landed but he had showed no symptom of Covid-19 then. He got himself tested as he was feeling tired over the last few days and tests confirmed the infection,” Bhargava said.
“We were informed about this patient around Wednesday midnight after which we started looking for people who work at the company. The company has about 707 employees — all of them as well as their family members, relatives and friends will be put on surveillance. Over 1,500 persons are going to be under surveillance,” Bhargava said.
“The 29 persons who had direct contact with him will be tested for Covid-19. We will be asking all 700-plus employees and their family to remain in home quarantine for 14 days as a precautionary measure. The factory has been shut until further notice,” Bhargava said.
The district administration is also going to inform the Noida Metro and the Delhi Metro to sanitize trains as the Janakpuri resident used to travel by the Metro to reach his office in Sector 80.
The Delhi government has also traced 1,410 people who have come in contact with the six positive patients in the city. Of them, 603 are Delhi residents who will remain under surveillance.
With the rising number of cases, the government has also initiated the process to increase the number of sample collection centres to 34.