JAMMU: In major spike in Coronavirus cases in Jammu region, wife and son of an Advisor to the Lieutenant Governor, who had returned from New Delhi, were among 52 persons including a Major, a BSF jawan and a police constable deployed at Lakhanpur who tested positive for Coronavirus on Sunday, 26 of them in Jammu district alone, while an Income Tax lawyer from Trikuta Nagar, who died of multiple problems at ASCOMS Sidhra has also tested positive for COVID-19 taking Corona casualties in Jammu region to three and total cases to 291.
Quoting officials newspaper Daily Excelsior reported that wife and son of an Advisor to the Lieutenant Governor who had returned from New Delhi tonight tested positive for COVID-19 and were immediately shifted to SMVD Narayana Hospital at Kakryal in Katra. The Advisor will be subjected to testing later. Other contacts of the positives, if any, will be identified and subjected to sampling shortly.
Three members of a family of Rajpura near Shakti Nagar in Jammu district also tested positive tonight.
An Income Tax lawyer hailing from Sector 1, Trikuta Nagar, who had died at ASCOMS Sidhra due to multiple complications earlier in the day, tested positive for COVID tonight as his sample was taken after his death. His body will be cremated under the protocol for Corona deaths, said the report.
This is the third Corona casualty in Jammu region, the first two being in village Tikri of Udhampur district and another at Preet Nagar, Digiana in Jammu district, it said.
Of 52 Corona positive cases detected on Sunday, 26 belonged to Jammu district, eight Samba, four Kathua, three each in Udhampur, Reasi and Rajouri and rest to other districts, it added.
Officials said a 31-year old Major has tested positive for COVID-19. He hailed from New Delhi but his place of posting hasn’t been mentioned.
A police constable of 19th battalion of Indian Reserve Police (IRP), who was on duty at Lakhanpur in Kathua district, the gateway to Jammu and Kashmir from where thousands of stranded people have entered the Union Territory, has tested positive for COVID-19, police said, adding he hailed from Basohli tehsil of Kathua district and was sampled on May 18. He was on duty for frisking of the stranded passengers crossing Lakhanpur.
He has been shifted to the Government Medical College (GMC) Kathua and many police personnel who had come in contact with him are being identified for isolation and sampling.
A BSF constable hailing from New Delhi, who had returned to BSF Headquarters in Rajouri and was under quarantine inside the Headquarters also tested Corona positive on Sunday and has been sent to the hospital. Significantly, he was the first BSF jawan to test positive for the virus in Jammu region. An Army jawan from Samba district had earlier tested positive for COVID-19 but he has since been treated and discharged from the hospital.
A 26-year old girl from Praveen Colony, Channi Himmat, who had been declared negative for Coronavirus and released from administrative quarantine after return from New Delhi, was declared positive this evening, two days after her return to house.
Positive cases of Jammu district included a 19-year-old student from Bakshi Nagar, who was under administrative quarantine at Nagrota with travel history of New Delhi, a youth from Lane No. 7, Rani Talab, Digiana who had returned from Nagpur, , a worker from Akhnoor who had returned from Maharashtra and was under quarantine at Malik Market Narwal, a 26-year old youth from Rahal Camp in Bishnah with travel history of Nagpur and quarantine at Akhnoor and a 19-year-old boy under quarantine at Mandal, who had travel history of Bengaluru, two women from Simbal Camp and Miran Sahib, and one each from Bakshi Nagar and Gorkha Nagar and two from Talab Tillo among others.
Three more persons from Jammu district including a 63-year old Male admitted patient in the hospital, a 26-year old Male from Shakti Nagar and a 24-year-old Male from transit camp also tested positive tonight.
Seven persons, all males including a 10-year old boy, six of whom had returned from Mumbai and one from Punjab, and were under administrative quarantine at different centres, have tested positive for COVID-19 in Samba district, SSP Samba Shakti Pathak said. One of them is a 10-year-old boy from village Rara while six others were aged between 30 to 48 years and were working at Mumbai and Punjab and had returned through trains and buses recently, he added.
District Magistrate Kathua OP Bhagat said four persons of Kathua district on Sunday tested Corona positive. They included a 30-year old woman from Ward No. 13, Kathua, who had returned from Pathankot, 42 and 38 yeard old man from Basohli and a 28-year-old youth from Ward No. 6, Basohli First two had travel history of New Delhi while third had returned from Lakhanpur. All of them were under administrative quarantine.
Apart from a BSF constable, two other persons who have tested positive in Rajouri district hailed from Thanna Mandi and had travel history of Haryana. They too were under the administrative quarantine.
SSP Rajouri Chandan Kohli on Sunday visited different quarantine centres in Rajouri district to assess facilities and monitor the deployment of police and paramilitary personnel there to ensure that the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) is strictly adhered to.
Two persons hailing from Majalata and Manwal in Udhampur district, who had returned in the trains and were under quarantine, tested positive on Sunday. Third-person from Udhampur, a 35-year old Male tested positive tonight.
A 30-year-old make from Kishtwar, a 28-year old Male from Reasi and a 28-year old Male from Poonch also tested positive.
Sources said majority of 52 persons tested Corona positive on Sunday were returnees from outside the Union Territory and were under administrative quarantine at various facilities while others were their contacts.
With 52 positive cases on Sunday, total number of Corona patients in Jammu region had gone up to 291 and active cases to 214 as three patients of Jammu district were discharged on Sunday.
The discharged patients hailed from Bakshi Nagar, Nagrota and Bhatindi, Chest Diseases Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr Rajeshwar Sharma said. A total of 75 Corona patients have recovered while there were two deaths, reported Daily Excelsior.
