Jalandhar District logs 1 death, 238 new cases

Aparna Banerji

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, August 19

Jalandhar today reported 238 Covid-19 positive cases. While 192 cases were reported in the afternoon, an additional spike in the evening took the total to 238 cases. The district tally has reached 4,628 cases.

A death was also reported in the district and with this the toll has touched 116. The victim is a 72-year-old man from Baba Budha Nagar.

With an average of 111 positive cases being reported daily in August and all major public offices being affected – the Health Department or the district administration has still not formally declared community spread in the district.

On Wednesday, positive cases surfaced in Kot Ramdas Abadi, Doordarshan Enclave, Friends Colony, Randhawa Colony, Nandanpur, Maqsoodan, Amardas Nagar, Defence Colony, Gujral Nagar, Bhargo Camp, Sofi Pind, Indira Colony, Avtar Nagar and Choti Baradari, among other areas. Doctors, police personnel and health staff were among those who tested positive.

There has been an addition of 2,111 cases in the month of August. While the district had 2,517 confirmed cases of Covid-19 on August 1, the tally had reached 4,258 on Wednesday.

Until August 1, only 62 deaths had been reported in the district while the number touched 116 now. In first 19 days of this month, 54 deaths have already taken place – averaging two deaths per day. However, there have been days on which up to six deaths have been witnessed in the district. While post- mortem of Covid patients is not conducted and posthumous testing has also been dispensed with, sources say the actual amount of deaths might be much higher.

The DAC complex, Health Department, Civil Surgeon’s office, Civil Hospital, PIMS, private hospitals, police personnel, Army, BSF, CRPF and politicians have been affected due to Covid. There has been mass reporting of cases from several areas, including Nakodar, Shahkot and Lohian.

While Jalandhar is among the districts where a night curfew has been imposed seeing the dramatic rise in Covid cases, the city continues to hold meetings, protests, gatherings and markets also continue to function normally as no lockdown restrictions were in place during the day except the weekends.

Nodal Officer Dr TP Singh, who is in home isolation, said, “Cases are witnessing a spike everywhere. It is not the Health Department’s prerogative to declare community spread. However, aggressive testing is taking place and adequate awareness is being created so that people might not put themselves at risk.”

27 new cases in Hoshiarpur

The number of positive cases in the district has increased to 926 with 27 new cases coming up in the district on Wednesday. Civil Surgeon Dr Jasbir Singh said of these, 10 were from Harta Badla, four each from Dasuya and Mukerian, three from Tagore Nagar in Hoshiarpur city, two each from Garhshankar, Mahilpur and Chakkowal health block. Dr Singh said on Wednesday, samples of 1,105 persons with suspected flu-like symptoms were taken in the district and 1,223 reports were received from samples taken earlier. The total number of samples taken so far in the district has reached 44,527 and as per the reports received from the laboratory, 40,602 were negative, while 3,024 were yet to be reported and 61 were invalid. The number of active cases is 178, and 723 patients have recovered so far. OC