COVID-19: With 78 cases so far, Jalandhar district is hotspot in Punjab

27 who tested positive are either employees of the Punjab Kesari group or their contacts

Police personnel stand guard outside a sealed area, in Jalandhar. | File

With 78 positive cases of COVID-19 being so far detected in Jalandhar, the district has become the latest hotspot of the deadly virus in Punjab.

Among the 78, 27 are either employees of the a Jalandhar-based media house Punjab Kesari group or their contacts, a senior official told The Hindu .

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“Out of the 78, there are 27 cases, which include employees of Punjab Kesari group and their contacts. The sample of first employee, who showed symptoms, was taken and sent to Amritsar. The reports came in around two days and the person was quarantined soon when he was sampled. However, till the time he was sampled, he continued to work. So, probably the infection spread in that time. After the first case, we sampled the rest of the employees — around 200, who were working in that complex. Till that time many could have contacted others,” said Shena Agarwal, Chief Administrator Jalandhar Development Authority.

Area sealed

“The area, where the office is located, has been sealed. All the positive cases are in civil hospital at isolation facility. And all contacts, who have even been tested negative are home quarantined,” she said. The office is located in city’s Pucca Bagh area.

To deal with the situation in Jalandhar, the administration had implemented a containment plan and extensive contact tracing was being done. “We have already implemented the containment plan. We are going for extensive contact tracing by going to secondary and even contacts beyond any positive case, and that is one of the reason that we have been able to find so may positive cases... even asymptomatic and unrelated contacts are being traced,” Ms. Agarwal said.

“Containment zones have been defined where strict monitoring is being adhered, we have buffer zones and those areas have been sealed with inward and outwards movement being restricted,” she added.

“Also, we are doing active surveillance in the containment area in the entire Jalandhar city as there have been more number of cases in the urban area. Door-to-door survey is under way with 150 teams in place to carry on the survey to trace any with or without travel history,” said Mr. Agarwal.

So far confirmed cases have been reported from 19 districts in Punjab. The districts, which have most number of cases include 78 from Jalandhar, 63 from Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar and 61 from Patiala.

Punjab has so far reported 18 deaths and 313 total number of positive cases. As many as 84 patients have so far recovered.