Farmers Movement Archive

16 new cases take Jalandhar district count to 105

Tribune News ServiceJalandhar, May 1With 16 new persons testing positive in the district today, the district tally has reached 105. Six of the new cases are contacts of the city Mayor’s OSD, as per the list released by the Health Department. Two are contacts of journalists from the local media house and two of them have returned from Hazur Sahib and Rajasthan. Another patient from Wadala Chowk had visited the local private hospital, where the deceased Shahkot woman was under treatment.Besides these cases, the remaining five are all new cases with no previous contact history. One of those without travel history is a 60-year-woman, who is beggar. While over 7,200 persons had been placed under quarantine in the district till today, the district currently has 93 active cases.While the six persons, being termed Mayor’s OSD’s contacts by the Health Department, also include sanitation workers of the MC who tested positive, they had been sampled after the OSD tested positive. Meanwhile, the OSD has denied having met them. In total, the new cases include 10 males, the youngest of them being 15-year-old, and six females, youngest being 19.Two with travel history include a 58-year-old woman who returned from Hazur Sahib, a resident of village Rampur in Nurmahal, and a 32-year-old man who returned from Rajasthan, a resident of Rama Mandi. Contacts from the media house include a 47-year-old man of Lamma Pind, and a 26-year-old male resident of Army Enclave, Garha, both contacts of previous cases.The other cases with no travel or contact history include a 55-year-old woman (Basti Sheikh), 19-year-old girl (Gujjarpal Nagar), 21 year-old woman of near DAV College, 15-year-old boy of Sangal Sohal village, 25-year-old youth of Wadala Chowk and 60-year-old woman, a beggar and a resident of Model Town.Harpreet Singh Walia, the Mayor’s OSD, said: “I have been meeting officers but not sanitation workers. I haven’t even heard the names of many of those featuring on the list. I think they might have come in contact with other people. I did not meet them.”Never met six persons: OSDHarpreet Singh Walia, the Mayor’s OSD, late this evening also sent a letter to the District Health Officer, Civil Hospital, Jalandhar, claiming the list of the six persons claimed to have been infected by him as “wrong and false”.Walia in his letter, said: “The list prepared and broadcast today was wrong and false with respect to the claim that the six (aforementioned) patients were in close contact with me. Where as a matter of fact, during course of my official duty, I got infected from Covid (at present admitted to the Civil Hospital) and since the past several months I have not met above mentioned persons nor were they in contact with me as wrongly claimed in the list.” The letter further added that: “The false list wrongly associating me with those patients is offensive and has tarnished my image.”He also sent the same list to a media house, seeking withdrawal of his name from the same.Dr TP Singh, Nodal Officer, Covid-19, Jalandhar, said: “The six contacts of the Mayor’s OSD are those who had tested positive after we sampled his contacts. They work at the MC. No necessarily direct contacts, indirect contacts from the workplace could also test positive. We are also tracing the contacts of the remaining persons.”Rise in number of containment zonesWhile 27 urban and four rural areas of the district are already under the containment zone, with a spurt of new cases in several areas at least six more district regions will be under the zone. The number of urban areas has reached to 29 with the new 16 cases today.One more pilgrim tests positive in HoshiarpurHoshiarpur: One more pilgrim Avtar Singh, a resident of Narayangarh village in the Dasuya subdivision, was found positive for Covid. He was among the pilgrims who had returned from Nanded. — OC

The Tribune

2020-05-02