Influenza symptoms in Solan Covid patients

Ambika Sharma
Tribune News Service
Solan, September 9

The number of symptomatic Covid patients has increased in Solan district, most of them have been found to be suffering from influenza-like infection (ILI). The trend has reversed as earlier a majority of the Covid patients were asymptomatic.

Improper tracing

A tendency to conceal information about positive cases has been noticed among the managements of industrial units, often leading to improper contact tracing.

Among 26 cases detected on Tuesday, 53.85 per cent suffered from ILI while 34.6 per cent of the 76 cases detected on Monday showed ILI symptoms.

More than 1,760 cases have been detected in the district and 15 persons have lost their lives. While six deaths were registered till August 31, nine more fatalities occurred in the last one week. Several other patients, who were referred to the PGI, Chandigarh, or the IGMC, Shimla, also succumbed to Covid. The district also has the highest number of active cases.

An alarming spike of 290 cases has been registered from August 31 to September 7. As per an analysis of the Health Department, 46 per cent cases detected in the district pertain to the industrial belt of Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh (BBN), most of them industrial workers.

A tendency to conceal information about positive cases has been noticed among the managements of industrial units, often leading to improper contact tracing. Even information relating to the deaths of industrial workers was concealed at times, delaying proper sanitisation and the mandatory closure of an industrial unit for 48 hours for contact tracing. The police undertake contact tracing in the BBN belt.

Baddi SP Rohit Malpani said that the Industries Department should play a proactive role in disciplining erring industries, which conceal information about Covid cases. Measures like a spot fine could also be introduced to instil a sense of responsibility among the managements of the industrial units.