Haryana: Total COVID-19 cases soar to 96, man dies trying to escape isolation ward

With 22 new cases being recorded today, Haryana now has 96 COVID-19 patients with around 55 being Tablighi Jamaat members. The most effected by the corona havoc continues to be the Palwal district, which recorded the most number of new patients today at 9, taking the district total to 25.

Seven new cases were registered in Faridabad where the total number of cases is 21 wherein five are Tablighi Jamaat members and two are local residents.

Nuh in Mewat registered six new cases and five out them were foreign national Tablighi Jamaat members while one was from Kashmir. While two out of them are natives of Sri Lanka, the others hail from South Africa, Indonesia and Thailand. The total number of cases in Nuh district is now 14. The state health authorities are expecting a surge in the number of cases over the next two days while Palwal awaits the reports of 89 Tablighi Jamaat members. Nuh is still waiting for reports of over 200 swab samples collected from Tablighi Jamaat members evacuated from the mosques in district.

Earlier in the day, Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij said that Tablighi Jamaat members had entered the state before the lockdown was imposed, adding that as many as 652 of the 1,300 Tablighi Jamaat members who had come to Haryana had been traced to Nuh district alone.

"We are still waiting for the reports and yes the number of positive cases may surge. We have kept all health infrastructure ready to deal with increased cases. We are however keeping efforts to contain cluster transmission on top priority," said Dr. Virender Yadav Chief Medical Officer, Nuh. 

The Nuh police has also booked all 57 foreign national Tablighi Jamaati members who were taken from from the district mosques for allegedly flouting their visa norms. Prior to Palwal, police had taken similar action and had gone ahead sealing five villages that harboured these members and suspended their sarpanches.

Meanwhile the state government is all set to implement a “micro containment plan” in Faridabad and Gurugram, citing these cities being vulnerable to cluster transmission of COVID-19. These districts have the highest population density and they will now go ahead with intensive community testing with rapid antibody tests that would yield results within three hours. The clusters or areas with positive cases will be identified and households and residents within a three-km radius shall be screened and eventually quarantined.

According to Gurugram Deputy Commissioner Amit Khatri, the containment plan would include geographic quarantine, social distancing measures, enhanced active surveillance, testing all suspected cases, isolation of cases, quarantine of contacts and risk communication to create awareness among the public on preventive public health measures.

Suspected COVID-19 patient dies while trying to escape isolation ward

In what highlights the panic surrounding COVID-19, a 55-year-old COVID-19 suspected man died while trying to escape the isolation ward of the hospital he was kept in, falling to his death after trying to climb down from the balcony using a rope made of bedsheets.

The report on his COVID-19 test, based on samples collected on Sunday, came in hours after his death and showed a negative result.

Trying to escape from the isolation ward of Kalpana Chawla Government Medical College Karnal, Haryana, the deceased was identified as Shiv Charan of Noorpur village in Panipat. He made a rope of bedsheets and IV sets and was trying to climb down from the sixth floor of hospital. He had just stepped out when the rope collapsed and he fell and died on the spot.

He was admitted there on April 1 with multiple ailments. Deputy Commissioner Nishant Kumar Yadav confirmed that he was a suspected coronavirus patient and was placed in the isolation ward. 

11 new cases in Punjab; Ropar patient posses threat of cluster transmission

Punjab recorded 11 new cases of coronavirus today taking state's total figure to 79. Fresh cases have been reported from districts of Ropar, Kapurthala, Mohali, Ludhiana and Fatehgarh Sahib.

The two patients from Ropar are wife and son of the first Covid positive case, a 55 year old resident of Chatamali village. With three people from the same village testing positive, the health authorities sealed villages around Chatamali and collected diagnostic samples of 17 persons, the primary contacts of the patients.

The first patient had visited a private hospital and Community Health Centre at Kurali as well as Civil Hospital in Phase VI of Mohali and even attended a medical check-up camp organized in the village on March 13, where 20 foreign nationals, along with doctors from Ludhiana and Mohali were present. This is being seen as key threat of cluster transmission and thus all have been alerted. Meanwhile a Tablighi Jamaat man from Kapurthala, another from Ludhiana and two women from Fatehgarh Sahib too have tested positive.

A 30-year-old man from sector 68, Mohali, whose father had attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Nizamuddin, also tested positive.

Meanwhile a 65-year-old man, suspected to have had coronavirus, died at Fortis Hospital Amritsar on Monday morning.

"He had been admitted to Guru Nanak Dev Hospital Amritsar on March 28-29, where he was diagnosed for pneumonia. As he was not improving, he was tested for COVID-19 and reported negative," read a release posted online by Special Secretary KBS Sidhu.