Six new Corona positive cases take total number to 22 in U’khand
By ARUN PRATAP SINGH
DEHRADUN, 4 April: Six new Corona positive cases were reported today in Uttarakhand taking the total number of Corona positive cases in the state to 22 so far. Today six samples have been reported to be positive. All the new cases however are of Jamatis returning to the state after after attending Tablighi Jamat in Nizamuddin in New Delhi. The only exception among the new cases is one youth who had returned to the state after attending some other Jamat.
Among the new cases, five are from Nainital district while one is from Haridwar district. So far in the state 15 positive cases are of Jamatis.
With the number of Corona positive cases rising sharply in past three days, the government as well as the people are now concerned over the possibility of community spread of the dreaded virus which can lead the state to the third stage.
It may be recalled that three days ago, the number of Corona cases had remained steady at seven only, but the Jamatis returning from various Jamats and many of them returning secretly has raised the possibility of community spread in the state, particularly in colonies with majority of Muslim population. Earlier, it appeared that Uttarakhand would tide over the Corona crisis with just a handful of cases as it was among the first states to enforce lockdown. But with the new cases emerging, the risk of the state entering the third stage due to community spread can’t be negated now.
Although the state administration and the Police are seriously engaged in tracing everyone who had either returned from any Jamat as well as those who had come in contact with them, but the task to trace everyone and quarantine all of them is a challenging task.
Additional Secretary Health Yugal Kishore Pant informed that a total of 59 sample reports had been received from the labs of Haldwani and AIIMS Rishikesh, out of which Corona was confirmed in six patients while 53 reports turned out to be negative. All those found Corona positive were now being sent to hospitals from home quarantine. He also claimed that surveillance had been raised in areas where Corona positive Jamatis were traced. He also claimed that sampling would also be increased if required. Along with this, doctors had been asked to ensure identification of symptomatic patients and protection of others from infection.
With the new cases reported in Dehradun, the district administration of Dehradun is preparing to sanitise the colonies with substantial minority population like Bhagat Singh Colony, Muslim Colony in Bhandari Bagh and Kargi Grant in Patel Nagar. Besides this, the administration has also stepped up the process of identifying people who had come in contact with Corona positive patients.
District Magistrate Dr Ashish Kumar Srivastava claimed that there were adequate number of isolation and quarantine centres in the district. All new patients were being shifted to Doon Hospital. He also claimed that all the people who had been found positive are investigated to find out who else they had come in contact with. However to trace all who had come in contact with Corona positive cases is a big challenge for the government and under the circumstances there is possibility of the graph of the corona patients rising sharply in coming days in Uttarakhand and particularly in Dehradun.
So far 296 Jamatis have been identified in the state and placed in institutional quarantine. In addition, many of whom who had come in contact with them are being placed in home quarantine.
A total of 825 samples of Jamatis and their contacts have been sent from the state so far for investigation. Out of these, the investigation report of 671 cases has turned out to be negative and 15 were positive. Reports of 138 samples are still awaited. 144 more samples have been sent to the lab for examination. Of these, the 58 samples are from Nainital district. While 33 samples have been sent from Dehradun district, 15 from Udham Singh Nagar, 14 from Haridwar, 10 from Champawat, five from Almora and one each from Chamoli and Pauri districts.
Presently 152 people are admitted under the supervision of doctors in hospitals. A total of 8557 people are in home quarantine.
