Inter-state travellers behind uptick in Covid-19 cases?

Karam Prakash
Patiala, April 25

Amid rising Covid cases, interstate travellers, especially coming from the National Capital Region (NCR), have become a cause of concern for the Health Department. Of the 17 active cases in the district, 14 are inter-state travellers.

The Health Department has issued an advisory to the inter-state travellers to get Covid test if symptomatic. The health officials said there had been a slight rise in the positive cases over the past few days.

As per health officials, Covid cases are likely to mount in the next 10 days. Dr Sumeet Singh, District Epidemiologist, said, “People, showing symptoms with inter-state travel history, should get themselves testes for Covid. Any negligence shown by them can prove fatal in the coming days.”

New Patiala Civil Surgeon Dr Raju Dheer said people should follow Covid appropriate behaviour to stave off Covid surge. He appealed resident to wear face masks and get their due vaccination at the earliest.

Samples sent for retest

In the wake of fears of the new Covid variant XE, genome sequencing of the Covid samples has started at government medical colleges. However, no XE variant has been detected in Patiala so far. Out of the five samples sent for genome sequencing, three samples have turned out to be Omicron, responsible for the third Covid wave. Two samples have been sent for retesting.