19 new COVID-19 cases in Himachal, tally reaches 1,202

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala/Solan, July 12

Nineteen more people tested positive for COVID-19 in Himachal Pradesh on Sunday, taking the total number of COVID-19 cases in the state to 1,192, officials said.

According to Additional Chief Secretary (health) RD Dhiman, 10 of the fresh cases were reported from Baddi, six from Kangra, two from Chamba and one from Mandi.

The fresh six cases in Kangra took the total number of cases in the district to 309.

Those who tested positive in Kangra today include a 59-year-old man and his 26-year-old daughter, both residents of village Chatri in Shahpur area. The father-daughter duo did not have any travel history and had probably come in contact with an already positive patient. The authorities are trying to trace the contacts of said patients.

Another case is of a 13-year-old female, resident of village Dhan in Jawali area of the district. She was the primary contact of her father, who was already a COVID-19 patient and is presently at the COVID Containment Centre in Dadh.

A six-year-old boy of village Ghar in Harsar area in Palampur region also tested positive. He is a primary contact of his father, who is an already positive patient at COVID Containment Centre in Dadh.

The remaining two patients are a 55-year-old woman of village Dagoh in Jaisinghpur area with travel history from Delhi and a 53-year-old male resident of village Bagh near Bassa Wazira with travel history from Uttar Pradesh.

Besides, 14 patients were discharged from various COVID Containment Centres from Kangra today.

In Mandi, a 22-year-old Gurgaon returned asymptomatic woman of Kummi village in Balh Tehsil tested positive, a district official said, adding that she was home quarantined.

The 10 cases in Baddi has taken the tally in Solan to 187.

The cases detected today include a 12-year-old brick kiln worker, who had arrived from Muradabad on July 6 at Nalagarh. The kiln owner had got the boy sampled.

Others cases include two labourers aged 28 and 26 years, who had arrived in Baddi from Muradabad and were under quarantine by their factory.

Three others — a 27-year-old, 24-year-old and 18-year-old — who had come from Bihar on July 8, too, had been quarantined by their respective factories.

A 27-year old youth, who is a frequent inter-state traveller, was under quarantine at a Baddi Hotel while another 35-year old youth from Nalagarh had influenza-like infection.

All have been shifted to the nearby COVID Care facilities.

As many as 59 COVID-19 cases have surfaced in the past three days in Solan with 45 being in the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh industrial belt alone. It has the third-highest number of cases now after Kangra and Hamirpur districts in the state.

The number of active cases stands at 75 while 98 have cured and four migrated from the district to date.

Solan Medical Officer Dr NK Gupta said a 12-year old girl, who also figures in the list of patients detected today, is the daughter of a COVID-positive migrant woman, who had tested positive on July 8. She is admitted at ESI COVID Hospital at Katha.

The virus has so far claimed 10 lives in the state. While 911 infected people have recovered, 13 migrated out of the state, officials said.

Sixteen more patients — 14 in Kangra and one each in Mandi and Chamba — recovered from the infection on Saturday, Dhiman said.

The number of active COVID-19 cases in the state now stands at 256.

Solan has the highest number of active cases in the state at 75, followed by 42 in Kangra, 35 in Hamirpur, 28 in Kinnaur, 26 in Una, 13 in Bilaspur, 11 in Shimla, 9 in Chamba, 7 in Mandi, 6 in Sirmaur, 3 in Kullu and 1 in Lahaul-Spiti, Dhiman said.