Chandigarh: A day after the union territory of Chandigarh reported its first positive COVID-19 case, four new cases have been confirmed, taking the total number up to five.
The count in Punjab has gone up to three, with a 69-year-old woman in Mohali testing positive at a private hospital. However, this case has caused consternation among the state’s health officials, as the woman broke protocol by not reporting to a government facility, and had to be virtually “dragged” to a civil hospital, along with a cousin whose test results are awaited.
Three of the new cases in Chandigarh are close relatives or domestic help of the first patient diagnosed with the coronavirus in the city Thursday. More than 120 people who came in contact with this family in Punjab, Chandigarh and Delhi have been stamped and asked to self-quarantine.
The fourth positive test in Chandigarh is a 26-year-old woman from Sector 19 who had returned from the UK on 18 March, and was admitted to the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), known locally as PGI Hospital. She went straight to the hospital upon arrival, and has been admitted there ever since.
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Chandigarh family
The first patient is a 23-year-old student from Sector 21 who had returned from the UK on 15 March. On Friday, the Chandigarh administration confirmed that her mother, brother and the family’s cook had tested positive.
The student’s father, who runs a SUV agency in Mohali, has tested negative. Reports of the driver who brought her from Amritsar international airport to Chandigarh are awaited.
Although the family insists the student has remained in isolation ever since her arrival, health officials have traced her contact with a Sector 20 beautician and a massage professional. At least two families, one from Sector 21 and another from Sector 38C, also came in contact with her between her arrival and testing positive for the coronavirus.
Her brother, who helps his father run his business, had travelled to Delhi and met people there. Health officials added that the family also came in touch with some people in Haryana’s Karnal and Gurugram.
The condition of all the five patients is said to be stable. In Chandigarh, as many as 42 people have been asked to self-quarantine.
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Mohali case
In Punjab’s Mohali, which abuts Chandigarh, a 69-year-old woman from Phase 3A who had arrived from the UK on 13 March has been found to be COVID-19 positive. She had travelled to India along with a cousin in whose house she was staying in Mohali.
After the woman turned symptomatic, she contacted a private hospital in Mohali and got herself tested. The private hospital sent her samples to the PGI Hospital for confirmation.
Sources in the Punjab health department said this was a serious breach of protocol on her part, as she hadn’t contacted government health facilities for testing. “The private hospital also is liable for action for hiding the report. Only after her test report went viral on social media did the government officials come to know about this case,” said a senior government health official.
Mohali civil surgeon Dr Manjit Singh told ThePrint: “When the government team came to know about this case and asked the family to immediately shift to the government hospital, they staunchly resisted. Police officials had to virtually drag them out of their house and convince them to get admitted in the government civil hospital.”
The surgeon added: “Right now, the woman and her cousin have been isolated. The report on the cousin’s samples is awaited. We have had to deploy two police women to ensure that they remain in the hospital. We have also asked the police to take necessary criminal action against the family for behaving in this fashion.”
The Mohali case has taken the total number of COVID-19 patients in Punjab to three, with the previous two being a resident of Italy who was tracked at the Amritsar airport (currently admitted at Government Medical College, Amritsar) and a 70-year-old diabetic man who died of the illness in Nawanshahr Wednesday.
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Deceased man may have infected more
Dr Gagandeep, nodal officer in-charge of the control of the epidemic in Punjab, said 83 people spread across four districts who came in touch with the Nawanshahr man have been stamped and home quarantined. He added that reports of samples of at least a dozen people, including the deceased’s close family members, are awaited.
He added that the man continued to travel, despite being told to self-quarantine. He said that although it has been reported in the media, it is still not confirmed whether he had visited the highly crowded Hola Mohalla festival at Anandpur Sahib while he was carrying the virus.
Gagandeep added that another 63 people in Punjab, who had travelled on the same flight as the Chandigarh Sector 21 student, have also been home quarantined.
A different set of 47 passengers, including 43 from Pakistan and four from Iran, who landed in Amritsar Friday morning, are under government quarantine in Amritsar. Punjab health officials said they are all stable and asymptomatic.
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