Baddi on alert after 4 test +ve in Punjab, Chamba

Tribune News Service

Solan, May 7

The administration of the industrial cluster of Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh(BBN) was put on high alert after four persons from here, who have returned to their native places in Punjab and Chamba, tested positive for Covid-19 in the last three days.

All four were working in the Baddi industrial area.

No positive case has emerged in the BBN belt since April 10 and apart from two small containment zones, the remaining area has been declared orange zone. However, the emergence of these cases has enhanced the worry of officials.

What is more worrisome is that these four persons could have infected several others in this industrial belt before returning to their native places on April 29.

Officials on tenterhooks

No positive case has emerged in the BBN belt since April 10 and besides two containment zones, the remaining area has been declared orange zone. However, the emergence of these cases has made officials worried. What is more worrisome is that these four persons could have infected several others in this industrial belt before returning to their native places on April 29.

Although 119 samples of the contacts of two Punjab cases had tested negative yesterday, the health authorities are worried as there are reports of cases that tested negative initially and positive later.

At least 340 secondary contacts of the two Punjab cases were also identified today and all of them would be tested. Work was also underway to identify the primary and secondary contacts of the two Chamba cases, said health officials.

A taxi driver (44), hailing from Jhiriwala village in Nalagarh, had gone to drop two persons from the truck union, Baddi, and three from the Nalagarh truck union to Salooni in Chamba on April 29 in a Sumo. Two of them, including a driver and a conductor, were tested positive in Chamba last evening.

SP, Baddi, Rohit Malpani, said the taxi driver who had gone to drop five persons at Chamba had consumed cigarettes along with two other drivers at a dhabha at Salooni after borrowing them from an unknown driver from Punjab. His wife, two sons and four family members of his tenants had been home-quarantined at Jhiriwala in Nalagarh.

According to the contact history traced by the Baddi police, the taxi driver, after returning to Nalagarh, gave his vehicle to another driver, who had been ferrying the staff of a pharma company in Baddi. Another driver, who had accompanied him, had also been home-quarantined and the vehicle had been sanitised.

The police have also traced the travel history of the two Covid-19 positive cases and it was found that they had gone to Khalilpur in Gurgaon on March 17 and returned on March 24. Since then they had remained inside their truck till April 29 after which they left for Chamba. The truck owner had hired a new driver on April 3 whose sample has also been taken by the health staff.

With the state government permitting 745 industrial units to operate in the BBN area, a workforce of 33,473 is engaged in manufacturing operations.

More than 1,000 trucks are plying out of the area on a daily basis and as many are coming here from across the country, including most affected states such as Maharashtra.

Corona Tracker