District worst affected; count mounts to 63

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, April 24

Jalandhar is now the worst affected district in the state with the total number of positive cases reaching 63. As many as 2,010 samples have been taken so far, while 6,514 persons are home-quarantined.

Of the positive cases, seven have recovered. There has been a jump of 1,000 in the number of samples taken in the past four days. The number was 1,032 on April 20.

The most affected areas include Mittha Bazar, Purani Sabzi Mandi, Maqsudan, Raja Garden, Basti Shiekh, Basti Danishmandan, Basti Bawa Khel, Pucca Bagh, Laal Bazar, Neelamahal, Nijatam Nagar and Jwala Nagar. The cases reported from Virk village and Lohian have recovered while those from Shahkot are under treatment.

For the past few days, five to six positive cases are being reported on an average, and with this the testing in the district has also been increased. The DC attributed the increase in the number of positive cases to more testing.

Namesake confusion

There have been at least three times, that confusion regarding namesakes or addresses has caused a mix-up in those being tested. While health teams on Thursday went to bring back a woman who had tested positive from Lasuri Mohalla, the woman said she had only been under quarantine and her sample was not taken, following which health teams traced the patient to Basti Sheikh. Several days ago also, the Health Department went to take another patient at a house, which belonged to someone else.

Another patient, who had tested positive, said while staff kept addressing him as Surjit, he expressed doubts that he was often confused with other patients.

Nodal officer, Covid-19, Jalandhar, Dr TP Singh, said: “We only have the names of the patients on the files of those tested positive that we receive. In the cases of namesakes, this sometimes creates confusion. However, these are just regular hiccups in view of a long list of patients.”

Aggressive testing leads to rise in cases

The Deputy Commissioner and the Commissioner of Police had said on Thursday that the rising Covid-19 cases in the district are due to aggressive testing. Till Thursday, 1,400 tests had been conducted in the district. Both officers said 54 of the cases found positive for Covid-19 were asymptomatic as they were totally fit.