11K houses in Amritsar under administration scanner

GS Paul

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, April 13

The biggest challenge for the district administration and health teams is to trace the contacts of two men who do not have a travel history but still got infected with Covid-19. One of them has died. The administration fears community transmission if their contacts are not traced soon.

Of the two patients, one —identified as Jaswinder Singh (65) — died on April 6. A resident of Chatiwind Gate, he was a retired Superintending Engineer in the Amritsar Municipal Corporation.

The other patient, identified as Balbir Singh (67), is under treatment at Government Medical College here. He runs an embroidery shop in Krishna Nagar here.

So far, Amritsar has reported 11 cases and two deaths.

The district administration and the MC on Sunday started the screening drive from Sultanwind area and Krishna Nagar. The plan is to cover all 12 lakh residents of the city.

DC Shiv Dular Singh Dhillon said, “Jaswinder’s primary contacts, included his wife and daughter, have already been examined. Their reports came out negative. His secondary contacts are being traced. Similarly, Balbir Singh’s contacts too are being traced. This is the reason that we started the screening drive from their areas.”

About 11,000 houses in Sultanwind and Krishna Nagar have been identified. Around 50,000 persons are on the radar; they will be examined within three days.

Mayor Karamjit Singh Rintu said 10 fire tenders and 43 hand-spraying machines have been pressed into service.