London returnee, 5 contacts new Omicron cases in Jalandhar district

Tribune News Service

Aparna Banerji

Jalandhar, January 14

Six new cases of the Omicron variant were reported here on Friday. Besides, the district reported a surge of 682 cases of Covid-19. The new cases of Omicron included a 32-year-old man, who returned from London, along with five of his contacts.

A total of 12 persons have tested positive for the Omicron variant in Jalandhar so far. Of them only one is currently active and the rest have tested negative, including the London-returned man and his five contacts.

The 32-year-old man who returned from London on December 24 had tested negative in the testing conducted in Delhi. However, he got tested again when he noticed some symptoms a few days after coming to Jalandhar. Upon testing again, he tested positive for Covid-19.

His genome sequencing also come out positive. Five of his contacts also tested positive for Omicron. They are all residents of Saraswati Vihar locality in Jalandhar and have tested negative for the virus following testing conducted on January 6. The contacts of the 32-year-old man are: a 34-year-old man, a 61-year-old woman, a 32-year-old man, a 66-year-old man and a 44-year-old woman.

12 in Jalandhar tested positive so far for Omicron

So far, a total of 12 people have tested positive for the Omicron variant in Jalandhar. These include an 85-year-old man who returned from the UK, a resident of Pandori Khas in Nakodar; a 47-year-old man who returned from the UK, a resident of Ramewal village in Phillaur; a 52-year-old man who returned from the UK, a resident of Gobinwal village (after being discharged from the isolation centre, he also returned to the UK on January 7); a 26-year-old man who returned from Brazil, a resident of Mohalla Kalian; and the 32-year-old London-returned man along with his five contacts. Barring these cases, the very first three cases of Omicron in Jalandhar included a 42-year-old woman who returned from Tanzania; a man who returned from Italy and another who returned from France.

So far, in the Jalandhar region, as many as 2005 people have returned from abroad out of whom 23 have tested positive. Of the 23, 12 people have tested positive for the Omicron variant. Meanwhile, the results of 60 more international travellers are still awaited.

Mayhem among baffled passengers

Health authorities are having a tough time tracking and testing many of the passengers due to their gruelling ordeals. Sources in the Health Department said, “Many are livid at being tested positive in India as their tests in other countries come back negative hours ago. Passengers from Italy, the UK and other countries have been repeatedly complaining about this. A doctor said, “We are listening to name calling from them every day. Some have had bad ordeals in Delhi where they have also had to pay hefty sums of money during isolation.

Majority skip institutional quarantine

Due to clashing test reports, many fear a delay in meeting loved ones. Though the protocols call for 14-day institutional quarantine for those tested positive at airports, many of the passengers refuse to be placed in institutional quarantine and are heading straight to their homes. After they return to their homes in Jalandhar, health teams track them for genome sequencing. Passengers on the Italy-Amritsar flights had also complained of similar inconvenience.

Several micro-containment zones in K’thala

With 259 Covid positive patients in Kapurthala on Friday, the district got several micro-containment zones. Sainik School Kapurthala, two hostels of the Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, and the Thapar Colony have been declared as micro-containment zones. Meanwhile, 26 Covid positive cases were also reported at the SSP office in Kapurthala. All of them are also asymptomatic. Dr Rajiv Bhagat, Epidemiologist, Kapurthala, said, “All these cases were reported positive during random sampling. Almost all are asymptomatic. The LPU students have been isolated at a well equipped in house Covid care centre where the students are under proper care of doctors.”

682 new cases, 4 deaths in Jal district

The district witnessed as many as 682 new cases of Covid-19 on Friday. With this, the Covid-19 tally in Jalandhar has reached 67,521. As many as 63,277 people have recovered from the disease in the district while the number of active cases in Jalandhar reached 2,736. The district reported four deaths due to Covid-19 on Friday, taking the death toll to 1,508.

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Tribune News Service

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