By ARUN PRATAP SINGH
DEHRADUN, 23 Apr: A fresh case of corona virus (COVID-19) infection was confirmed in Dehradun today. With this, the total number of Corona cases in Uttarakhand has gone up to 47, though it remains a matter of relief for the state that there has not been a single death of any such patient in the state, thus far. Not just this, 24 patients have also recovered so far from the infection in the state. For the past two days, no positive case of Corona was detected in the state but, today, a 65 year old Jamaati from West Bengal was found to be Corona positive. This case takes the total number of active cases to 23 in the state at present.
The latest confirmed case of Corona in Dehradun is a 65 year old Jamaati from West Bengal and is the fifth person from the same group who has been found to be positive. His report was confirmed by DG, Health, Dr Amita Upreti.
As per the reports, a group of eight Jamaatis from Tablighi Markaz and belonging to West Bengal had arrived in Dehradun on 12 March and organised a small scale Jamaat here. They stayed in a mosque located in Azad Colony and had not reported their presence even after the lockdown. After the lockdown, they had shifted to a rented house but were later found hiding during an intensive search operation launched by the Uttarakhand Police on 12 April. In fact, a total of 94 Jamaatis was caught during the search operations and kept at the quarantine centre in Bidhauli village, Dehradun. While four of the Jamaatis from West Bengal had already been shifted earlier to Doon Medical College Hospital following their positive reports, the one found positive today will also be shifted there, according to Dr NS Khatri, Deputy MS of Doon Medical College Hospital.
Good news came in today with the recovery of the youngest Corona positive case in the state, a nine month old baby who had caught the infection from his Jamaati father about a week ago. Though the mother was fine, she was also quarantined along with the baby for six days in Doon Medical College so that she could take care of and breastfeed the baby. Amazingly, this baby took just six days to recover from the infection probably due to the immunity boosted through antibodies in the mother’s milk. Today was the second time when the baby’s report proved to be negative.
However, the fact that Jamaatis continue to show Corona positive reports should be a reason for lot of worry for the state administration. There is definite ground now to widen the testing scale in the state. However, with rapid testing on hold for two days, it remains to be seen if Uttarakhand will be able to do so in the near future. Dehradun and Haridwar continue to be red zones as far as the Corona pandemic is concerned. According to the latest health bulletin issued this evening, a total of 215 test reports received today were negative, while 265 test reports were still awaited. In Uttarakhand, over 65,000 persons are in home quarantine while 295 persons are in hospital quarantine and 2565 persons in institutional quarantine at present.
