Duty magistrate, Panchkula with his team outside a Sector 17 house where a person tested positive on Tuesday. Express photo
As many as nine people, all with recent domestic travel histories from hotspots, tested positive in Panchkula Tuesday.
Of these, a family of four, which came from Mumbai and stayed at a guesthouse in Pinjore’s Madhavala, will not be counted in the district tally. The family has been shifted to BRS dental medical college of Panchkula.
Another family, residents of Sector 21, had recent history of travel to Himachal Pradesh where they have a business at Kala Amb. They were tested and came positive there itself. They have been brought to Panchkula and have insisted on being treated at the Alchemist hospital.
Two more, one each from Sector 17 and Sector 6, have also tested positive. Both had recent travel history to Delhi and Hyderabad and reported themselves for check-up.
The total district tally now stands at 41 (excluding cases from Mumbai), with 15 active cases.
Covid Care Centres put to use
With the cases and numbers on a steep rise in the district, Panchkula health department started using its covid care centres. The BRS dental college has the capacity for 300 asymptomatic patients. The Mumbai family Tuesday became the first ones to be treated there.
This is the first time that even close contacts of positive patients are being quarantined and tested at homes and a covid care centre, taken in as a “precaution”, has been used in Panchkula.
Sec 7 dispensary changed to a testing facility
The health department Tuesday in view of several travel persons testing positive, decided to set up a testing facility dedicated to all persons with travel histories. A kiosk at Sector 7 dispensary will be functional from Wednesday which will test all patients with recent travel histories from 8 am to 4 pm each day.
Meanwhile, a shed is also being made outside the OPD department and in the open for testing the patients reaching civil hospital. The CMO, Dr Jasjeet Kaur, says this is to de-congest the area inside the OPDs as regular consultation has also begun.
PPEs to be provided to doctors taking OPDs
While the emergency department of the hospital had already been provided PPE kits, the doctors at OPDs were only given N95 masks and surgical gowns. But in view of the large number of people visiting the hospital and the increase in overall numbers of the city, the decision to amp up protective facilities at OPDs by giving all doctors PPE kits and also work towards decongesting the OPDs has been taken by the administration.
Nodal Officer to inspect arrangements made for pandemic
In the light of orders passed by the state to all districts appointing officers to check for arrangements to deal with the virus, the DC on Tuesday appointed Dr Rajeev Narwal as the nodal officer to check and to make effective arrangements required by the Health Department based on the assessment.
Narwal has been asked to prepare a detailed report, including the actual implementation of all relevant guidelines of the Health Department and the district administration concerned in each containment zone, as well as the notifications of the Department of Health regarding wearing of masks in public places and maintaining social distance. He will also audit as to whether the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) issued are being followed.