Punjab’s high ranking officials have come under COVID-19’s grip. A day after the deadly contagion afflicted a dozen in the district bureaucracy, police force, health professionals and judicial officers, more bigwigs have tested corona positive on Thursday.
As many as 234 fresh cases were reported in the past 24 hours, including Ropar Deputy Commissioner Sonali Giri, Jalandhar (Rural) Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Navjot Singh Mahal, Dirba Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Manjeet Singh Cheema, Payal SDM Mankanwal Singh, and Shahkot SDM Dr Sanjeev Sharma.Besides, a medical officer posted at Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital, Faridkot, was also tested positive.
The past three days has seen as many as one IAS officer, 13 PCS officers, one PPS officer, Sangrur Civil Surgeon Dr Raj Kumar, Bathinda's District and Session Judge Kamaljit Lamba, and a Judicial Magistrate at Jalandhar testing positive for the novel coronavirus.
Taking note of the development, Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh expressed his concern and stressed the need to “raise the guard even further”.“Office staff, in particular, needs to be very careful,” he stressed.
At the same time, the Chief Minister has asked the Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan to issue standard operation procedures (SOPs) for government officers’ meetings, visit to other offices etc, making it clear that spread of infection among critical manpower due to casual attitude was not acceptable.
The PCS officers, tested positive, include Ludhiana Additional Deputy Commissioner (General) Amarijit Bains, Khanna SDM Sandeep Singh, Jagraon ADC Neeru Katyal Sharma, Khanna SDM Sandeep Singh, Hoshiarpur Municipal Commissioner Balbir Raj, Hoshiarpur SDM Amit Mahajan, Phagwara SDM Pavitter Singh, Mohali SDM Jagdeep Singh, Fatehgarh Sahib SDM Dipankar Garg, Director (Employment) Rajiv Gupta, State Transport Authority secretary Harjeet Sandhu, Ropar SDM Gurwinder Johal.
All the PCS officers were among 40 who had attended a PCS Association meeting on July 3 at Chandigarh to protest against the Vigilance Bureau’s action and arrest of a fellow PCS officer Tarsem Chand, who was posted as RTA, Faridkot.
With such a large number of high ranking officials — responsible for devising strategies to contain the spread of coronavirus — testing positive, many higher ups, including the Deputy Commissioners, have went under quarantine, besides a large scale sample collection of top district officials.
Confirming the development to The Pioneer, Ropar DC Giri said that she is currently waiting for her RT PCR report. Giri was tested after Ropar SDM’s test report came back positive on Wednesday. It has also been learnt that Payal SDM Mankanwal Singh was present in a public gathering at Rabbon Uchi village on Sunday, attended by the state Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu. The Pioneer has been told that the Minister has refused to undergo test, as of now.
PUNJAB TALLY REACHES 7140 WITH 183 DEATHS; REPORTED 234 FRESH CASES, FIVE CASUALTIES
Punjab on Thursday reported 234 new cases of coronavirus besides five deaths in the past 24 hours, taking the state’s total tally to 7,140, with COVID-19 death toll to 183.The districts of Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Sangrur, Ludhiana and Kapurthala reported one death each.
Ludhiana reported the maximum 57 cases while Patiala reported 42 cases, followed by 34 in Jalandhar, 16 in Sangrur, 14 in Amritsar, 10 in SAS Nagar (Mohali), nine each from Tarn Taran and Ferozepur, eight from Fategarh Sahib, seven from Gurdaspur, five from Kapurthala, four from SBS Nagar, three each from Hoshiarpur, Moga and Ropar, with two each in Mansa, Pathankot and Faridkot, and one case from Bathinda.
Among the positive cases, 90 have the contact history while nine have the travel history. With the state health department yet to compile the details of 12 cases reported from Ludhiana, the remaining infections reported in past 24 hours have no travel or contact history and categorized as “new” cases.Of the “new cases”, 12 are jail inmates —four from Ludhiana and eight from Tarn Taran, five are healthcare workers, six are police personnel, one health official, 14 cases are with Influenza-like Illness (ILI), four from out-pateint department (OPD), 11 are self reported, among others.
As many as 117 persons were discharged, including 60 in Amritsar, taking the total number of recoveries to 4945, leaving 2,012 active cases, of which 51 persons are on oxygen support and 11 are critical on ventilator support.
PUNJAB’S TOTAL CASES HAVE 70% ASYMPTOMATIC
Out of more than 7,100 cases reported in Punjab till date, a whopping 70 percent of them have no symptoms, leaving the state authorities baffled with more stress on increasing the capacity.
The information was shared by the state Principal Secretary DK Tiwari on Thursday during the review meeting, chaired by the Chief Minister.
Giving a presentation, Tiwari said that the a total of 70.8 percent of the COVID patients were asymptomatic, 14.7 percent mild, 8.8 percent moderate and 5.6 percent have severe symptoms.
He also added that the state’s mortality rate was currently 2.6 per cent as against India’s 2.8 per cent.
