Rajouri put on high alert after retd doc tests positive

Shyam Sood

Rajouri, March 27

The district administration is on a high alert after a retired doctor became the first positive case of coronavirus in Rajouri on Thursday.

Sources said the retired doctor, who is a resident of the Manjakot area of Rajouri, was asked to report at Government Medical College and Associated Hospital, Rajouri, for tests on Wednesday following information that he had recently travelled to a foreign country. The sources said instead of reporting at Rajouri medical college, he left for Jammu and got admitted at Government Hospital, Gandhi Nagar, where his tests, according to government spokesperson Rohit Kansal, were declared positive on Thursday.

They said the retired doctor was a member of a religious preachers’ team and had returned from Indonesia last Friday. The religious preacher, who became the first victim of coronavirus in Kashmir on Thursday, was also part of the group.

On his arrival in New Delhi, the retired doctor and the now deceased preacher had met several people in various mosques before returning to Manjakot and Kashmir, respectively.

The retired doctor, before leaving for Manjakot, had met a few relatives in Rajouri. At Manjakot, he attended a reception hosted for him at a mosque before leaving for home.

He later met his family members, including five siblings and their wives, close relatives, a former MLA, retired judge and sarpanches.

Immediately after the retired doctor was declared positive, all his family members, relatives and other people who had come in contact with him went into self-quarantine at their homes.

“All those who came in contact with the retired doctor shall soon be sent to institutional quarantine and the list has been sought from the tehsildar concerned and the criminal investigation department,” said District Magistrate Mohammed Nazir Sheikh.

Meanwhile, curfew has been imposed in the Manjakot area and the entire locality where the doctor lives has been put under surveillance, he said.

Three more persons, including students, who had come in contact with the retired doctor in Delhi and belong to Manjakot, are already under isolation at Government Medical College and Associated Hospital, Rajouri, since Wednesday and their reports are awaited, said health officials.