Jhajjar emerges as new Covid-19 hotspot district with 25 cases

Ravinder Saini

Tribune News Service

Jhajjar, April 30

Jhajjar has emerged as the new hotspot district of Haryana with 25 Covid-19 positive cases surfacing in the last few days. Twelve cases were reported on Wednesday, while seven more tests came up positive on Thursday.

All the cases have a direct or indirect connection with neighbouring Delhi. Out of those, 12 have a connection with Delhi’s Azadpur vegetable market, from where these people used to bring vegetables and fruits to Jhajjar and Bahadurgarh towns. Eleven of the 12 Covid-19 patients are commission agents, while one is a labourer. Nine sell vegetables in Bahadurgarh, while three work in the Jhajjar vegetable market.

The sudden emergence of 18 Covid-19 cases has sent the district authorities into high alert, and they have closed the vegetable markets in both the cities till further orders. 

Besides them, four patients are the family members of a Covid-19 positive Delhi cop residing in Sulodha village. One is a Delhi pharmacist residing in Bahadurgarh, while another is the wife of a Bahadurgarh man employed at a hospital in Delhi.

Significantly, all the 12 latest cases emerged during a random sampling drive, which was conducted by the health authorities following the apprehension about the transmission of the coronavirus infection in the district from Delhi. Apparently, more than 5,000 local residents were daily crossing the border to reach their workplace in Delhi despite the lockdown. They are employees of the Delhi Police, various departments of the Delhi government and different private hospitals or vegetable sellers.

“Random sampling has helped in tracing Covid-19 patients in the district. Every one working in the vegetable markets at Jhajjar and Bahadurgarh were asymptomatic when their samples were taken. Many refused to give their sample while several resisted the move pleading that they were fit and fine but we convinced them and managed to collect their samples,” said Randeep Singh Poonia, Civil Surgeon, Jhajjar. 

Poonia maintained that the Azadpur vegetable market had become a hotspot of the Covid-19 infection, as a large number of vegetable sellers and buyers from the neighboring states like Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh converged there. Jhajjar was free from Covid-19 a few days back but the Delhi connection of the locals has made their work harder, he added.

“We had the idea about the transmission of Covid-19 in Jhajjar from Delhi hence all those travelling to Delhi were being screened on a daily basis. We are now identifying the contacts of all the Covid positive cases in the district so that they could be screened and quarantined,” he added.

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