Chandigarh's first case hale & hearty

Naina Mishra

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 1

The first Covid patient of the city, a 23-year-old woman from Sector 21, today completed two weeks in an isolation ward at the GMCH-32.

As per the protocol, a patient can only be termed Covid negative after two consecutive tests. She was sampled for Covid on eighth day, which tested positive for the virus. The first patient was again tested on Wednesday evening, the results of which are awaited.

The city’s first Covid patient is stated to be having no fever, sore throat, cough or difficulty in breathing. It is learnt that she was not given any medication for the past 10 days as she was stable.

Dr Dasari Harish of the GMCH said, “If she tests negative, another test will be conducted after a gap of 24 hours. If the two consecutive samples test negative, the patient will be discharged with a condition that the doctor on duty finds the patient symptomless.”

“The patient’s condition is normal. She is hale and hearty. There has been an improvement in her condition. She did not complain of any signs as of now. We do daily monitoring of Covid patients. Most of her close contacts, who were tested positive, are also stable,” said Dr Dasari.

The girl had returned to the city from the UK on March 15 as her college abroad was shut due to Covid outbreak. She developed symptoms like fever the following day and got her tested on March 18. She was found infected with coronavirus.

“I am really hopeful that my results test negative,” said the 23-year-old patient.

Meanwhile, another 26-year-old woman, who was treating Covid patients in the UK and herself tested positive for the disease at the PGIMER on March 20, has tested negative after a week of her admission to the hospital. She will be discharged on the 14th day after following the discharge protocol for Covid patients.