4 who tested +ve in Amritsar had no travel or contact history

Manmeet Singh Gill

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, May 22

With the parents of the two-and-a-half-month-old child, who died at Government Medical College two days ago, testing negative for Covid-19 on Friday, it is being presumed that the child could have acquired infection during his stay in the hospital.

The child, admitted to the hospital for broncho pneumonia and meningitis, was tested for Covid-19 after his death and declared positive on Thursday. Meanwhile, the reports of the parents of another 15-year-old child, who was declared positive on Thursday, also came negative, confirmed an official.

With both the children testing positive and their parents testing negative for Covid-19, the officials stated that it was very much possible that they had got infection in the hospital. Earlier, a junior resident doctor and a laboratory technician of Government Medical College had tested positive for the coronavirus.

The department had reported four positive cases on Thursday. All the four patients were local residents with no travel history. Investigation by health authorities revealed that they were not primary or secondary contacts of any Covid-19 positive patient.

While all four cases are presumed to be cases of community spread, it has added to the trouble of health authorities and the district administration as their areas are being sealed and contacts are being identified.

“With the government permitting movement and markets opening up, it is very important that people take all precautions like wearing masks, washing hands and maintaining social distancing all the time,” said Civil Surgeon Dr Jugal Kishore. He said primary and secondary contacts of all four patients had been identified and samples were being sent for testing.

The total count of Covid-19 cases in the district stands at 315 with the district health authorities reporting no positive case on Friday. The department had sent 150 samples for testing on Thursday out of which 131 reports were received and all were negative. The reports of the remaining samples are still awaited.