4th Covid-19 death in Punjab

Chandigarh, March 31 (IANS) Barely a day after testing positive for coronavirus, a 65-year-old man with no travel history abroad died in the PGI hospital here on Tuesday, taking the death toll owing to virus to four in Punjab, doctors said.

Belonging to Nayagaon, located on the outskirts of Chandigarh, in Mohali district, he was undergoing treatment at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) for six days.

Earlier, he was examined with complications of chest pain and breathlessness at the Government Multi Specialty Hospital, Sector 16.

At the PGI, he was initially tested for H1N1, the reports of which were negative. Later he tested for Covid, after he stopped responding to the treatment, a doctor said.

After his testing Covid-19 positive, at least 50 medical people, comprising doctors, who were exposed in both the hospitals, were quarantined as a precaution on Monday.

So far, 41 people have tested positive for Covid-19 in the Punjab.

On Monday, a 42-year-old patient from Ludhiana died. She was diagnosed positive after her death.

The state had reported the second death of an elderly man on March 29. The patient was in close contact with the state’s first Covid-19 casualty Baldev Singh. Both were ‘granthis’ — the keeper and reader of the Sikh scripture.

They had returned from Germany and Italy and mingled freely with the people despite the home isolation advisory on landing at the IGI Airport in New Delhi on March 7.

Harbhajan Singh, 62, who died on March 29 due to cardiac arrest, was a resident of Hoshiarpur. He was undergoing treatment at Government Medical Hospital, Amritsar. Harbhajan Singh’s wife, son, daughter-in-law and a neighbour are undergoing coronavirus treatment at Hoshiarpur.

Harbhajan Singh, a diabetic, was suffering from hypertension.

So far around 70 per cent of Punjab’s positive cases have been traced to Baldev Singh, a resident of Banga town in the Nawanshahr district, who died from heart attack, but was diagnosed coronavirus positive after death.

Baldev Singh is suspected to have infected 27 people, comprising 14 family members.

The state government has been tracing Baldev Singh’s acquaintances in Nawanshahr, Hoshiarpur and Jalandhar districts, the hotbed of NRIs.

Earlier in the day, two persons tested positive. One, a Mohali resident, is undergoing treatment at the PGI Hospital here, and another with travel history to Dubai is hospitalised at the Government Medical College, Patiala.

Of the 41 cases in the state, 19 have been reported from Nawanshahr, seven from Mohali, six from Hoshiarpur, five from Jalandhar, two from Ludhiana and one each from Amritsar and Ludhiana. The state on March 9 tested the first positive case for the coronavirus.

–IANS

vg/in