Sanitation underway at Bapu Dham Colony in Chandigarh on Sunday. (Express Photo)
Six more patients from the city tested positive for novel coronavirus on Sunday night, driving the total tally of patients to 36. Out of the six confirmed cases on Sunday, four are family members of the GMCH-32 ward attendant from Bapu Dham colony who was admitted with the disease on Friday, one is a nursing officer from GMCH-32, and another is PGIMER nurse who was working in the Medical Emergency OPD.
The four family members of the 30-year-old ward attendant from Bapu Dham are his 48-year-old mother, his seven-month-old daughter and his two sisters aged 26 and 28. The test results of his wife are awaited while his brother has tested negative for the disease. Another 25-year-old nursing officer from GMCH-32, who is a contact of the ward attendant and a resident of Sector 32, too tested positive for the disease.
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The sixth positive case is a 26-year-old nurse from PGIMER who was living in a hostel inside the institute’s campus in Sector 12. The nurse was last posted at the medical emergency OPD of PGIMER between April 19 and 21. She contracted the virus despite wearing protective gear, including an N95 mask, gloves, gown and show covers.
Contacts traced to densely populated neighbourhoods
Apart from the five close contacts who tested positive on Sunday, 25 more family contacts of the Bapu Dham attendant’s family have been traced and quarantined, which include residents in his building and relatives from Sector 52 and Mauli Jagran. His two relatives from Mauli Jagran have been tested at GMSH-16.
Furthermore, the 30-year-old has at least 130 more community contacts, primarily located in the Bapu Dham area. This locality, as well as Mauli Jagran neighbourhood, from where another positive case was reported on Saturday, are both densely populated and congested areas inhabited by a mostly working class population. Both these areas have been cordoned off. However, maintaining social distancing and sanitary practices is an arduous challenge in these neighbourhoods of the city. Earlier, a slum colony at Dhanas was sealed due to COVID-19 cases detected in the locality.
In Sector 32, where the 25-year-old nursing officer from GMCH-32 lives, approximately 25 contacts have been traced. A confectionery store that the nurse frequented has also been shut down for now.
15 per cent cases of healthcare staff
Out of the 36 confirmed COVID-19 patients in the city, six are healthcare staff from the government hospitals where screening and treatment of COVID- 19 patients takes place. Hence, they comprise more than 15 per cent of the total tally of COVID-19 patients in the city.