Gurdaspur patient’s deceased brother was not Covid+, say kin

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, April 14

The 60-year-old Gurdaspur man, who tested positive today, had met his Jalandhar-based brother (now deceased) on March 22 and had even attended his last rites on April 4. But family members insist that the Covid report of his deceased brother had come negative on April 7, even three days after his death, and that they are not able to correlate any connection between the two cases.

Sukhjit Singh, son of deceased Subedar Major Loga Singh (65) of Birring village, Jalandhar, here, says, “My father used to go to our native Bhaini Paswal of Gurdaspur every fortnight or so. He had gone there on March 22 and met my uncle that day. But it was on March 31 that my dad started feeling unwell. He felt shivering and had fever. We observed him for two days but since he was not improving we took him to a private hospital on April 2.”

He added, “The doctors at the private hospital said that they suspected it to be a case of Covid and wanted to rule it out by getting him tested at the Civil Hospital. We too did not want to take any chances as my dad had been a heart patient and was suffering from diabetes too. We immediately shifted him to the Civil Hospital, where he died on April 4 even before the test report was to come.”

He said his dad always wanted his last rites to be performed in his village. So with the doctor’s permission, they took his body to Gurdaspur. “I and my cousin (son of Gurdaspur’s Covid-positive case) performed the cremation following the guidelines of the doctors. The body was not given a bath. We covered our faces with masks and wore gloves in our hands. My Gurdaspur-based uncle attended the cremation, but we made him stand at some distance as he already was complaining of being unwell. After everything got over, my dad’s test report came negative on April 7. But today my uncle has tested positive. We really are not able to correlate how it could have happened and if there was any connection in the two cases”.

343 held in 3 weeks for violating curfew

Jalandhar: The police on Tuesday said as many as 343 persons were arrested since March 23 for the violation of curfew imposed to contain the spread of Covid. Commissioner of Police Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said apart from policemen, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles were also keeping a close eye on the violators. He said till date, 256 FIRs, including 38 for not wearing masks, were registered at various police stations. Besides, 5,433 challans were issued and 447 vehicles were impounded. Bhullar said strict action would be taken against curfew violators in the coming days as well. TNS

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