7 new Covid cases in Jalandhar district

Aparna Banerji

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, April 17

In a relief to the Health Department, the 43-year-old Jalandhar-based microbiologist, who was tested positive for Covid-19 in the rapid test on Wednesday, has tested negative in the swab test. Over 10 hospital staff, key lab staff playing a foundational role in carrying out tests, had been placed under home quarantine after she tested positive.

Seven more people also tested positive in the district on Friday taking the tally to 38. In two days, 13 persons had tested positive in Jalandhar.

Meanwhile, the microbiologist is pivotal in testing Civil Hospital staff and had set up the rapid testing. She had also been in contact with the lab staff at the hospital. So far, over 20 nurses have already been placed under quarantine at the Civil Hospital.

Four children were among the seven persons who were tested positive on Friday.

Three of those tested positive include contacts of the 40-year-old Raja Garden-based mediaperson who tested positive on April 13. Two of his relatives are children. The three include his one-year-old nephew, eight-year-old daughter and 60-year-old mother. The fourth person to test positive is a 25-year-old male relative of the Purani Sabzi Mandi woman. Two other children are the eight and nine-year-old granddaughters of the 70-year-old Basti Danishmandan elderly who tested positive on Tuesday. The seventh is a Neelamahal area- based 24-year-old man, contact of the Mittha Bazar deceased man’s son.

The 70-year-old Basti Danishmandan man is also the father of a colleague of the Raja Garden mediaperson.

The direct and indirect contacts of the Raja Garden mediaperson — reported in the city and in Himachal Pradesh — have reached eight. Meanwhile, a team of the Health and Police departments also placed 98 persons linked with the media organisation under home quarantine last evening.