3 more CRPF men of Doda bn positive, total 13
12 from City’s outskirts infected by Corona
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, July 5: Eighteen employees of a soft drinks company at Bari Brahamna in Samba district, five staffers of a private hospital in Banihal tehsil of Ramban district, four more constables of Police Training School (PTS) Kathua and three CRPF jawans of one particular battalion in Doda were among 55 persons who tested positive for COVID-19 in Jammu region while 23 Corona patients were treated and discharged today.
With today’s cases, total number of Corona positive employees of the soft drinks company has gone up to 21 while daughter of one of the employees has also tested positive. Number of total positive constables at PTS Kathua was close to 20 while with three more CRPF jawans turning COVID patients, a total of 13 jawans of the battalion stationed at Doda have so far reported positive for the virus.
The Union Territory of Ladakh didn’t report any Corona positive case today keeping tally of the UT static at 1005. Of them, there were only 178 active cases including 87 in Leh and 91 in Kargil district.
SSP Samba Shakti Pathak told the Excelsior that 18 more employees of the soft drinks company at Bari Brahamna today tested positive for COVID-19 taking total number of positive employees to 21.
He said that aggressive sampling and contact tracing of all employees of the soft drinks company is underway and all of them will be sampled within next couple of days.
“So far, 400 employees of the cold drinks maker have been sampled for COVID-19. While three persons had tested positive till yesterday, 18 more reported positive today. All of them have been shifted to different COVID hospitals,” he said, adding that some of the officials of the Company have been quarantined at hotels while majority of staff was under quarantine in the premises of the Company which has been closed for all outside movement except for providing essentials to the staffers.
Nine positives of the soft drinks company hailed from Jharkhand, three from Uttar Pradesh and one each from Doda, Ramnagar in Udhampur district, Bhagwati Nagar, Talab Tillo, Paloura and New Plots in Jammu district. All of them were males.
Pathak said it is being examined whether the Company had taken all necessary precautions and it was being operated as per Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for COVID management or not.
“Presently, our focus is on keeping employees isolated and trace their contacts including their family members as majority of them were daily visiting houses and were touring markets for selling the soft drinks,” he said.
Reports said that daughter of one of the employees of the Company has also tested positive while sampling of family members of other staffers is underway.
An employee of the company hailing from Bishnah tehsil in Jammu district was the first to report positive for Coronavirus after which contact tracing and sampling of his associates had started.
Working in the company has been suspended till further orders, sources said.
Ten persons today tested COVID positive in Ramban district and all of them belonged to Banihal tehsil.
Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Ramban Dr Mohammad Fareed Bhat told the Excelsior that out of 10 positive cases in the district, five were employees of a private hospital at Banihal.
“Staff of the private hospital was sampled as part of random checking for Coronavirus during which their five employees tested positive for the virus,” Dr Bhat said, adding that there was no doctor among the positives. It is being anticipated that the hospital might have treated Corona infected patient(s).
The hospital has been closed and converted into quarantine centre for staff members.
Five other positives in Banihal include one vegetable vendor, a chemist, one woman who had delivered baby few days back, an Army soldier who was quarantined at transit camp and an employee of private company working for Railways.
The positives of Banihal belonged to Gund Adalkot, Chamalwas, Doligam, Chareel, Gund, Wagan, Main Bazaar and Asher.
Twelve persons have tested positive for Coronavirus in Jammu district.
They include a police constable from Jourian in Akhnoor who had returned home from Srinagar, one 35-year-old Army soldier, a 40-year-old man and one 16-year-old girl from Bihar, who were putting up at Muthi Camp, a middle-aged man from Sector 5 Trikuta Nagar with travel history of Haryana, 29-year-old woman from Rehari, who had returned from New Delhi, 28-year-old from Trikuta Nagar having travel history of Agra, 52-year-old from Bishnah, 34 and 31 years old men from Sunjwan, 38-year-old male from Talab Tillo and 27-year-old from CSIR IIIM, Canal Road.
Seven persons including four constables posted in Police Training School (PTS) Kathua have tested positive for the Coronavirus in Kathua district.
District Magistrate Kathua OP Bhagat said all four police personnel of PTS Kathua who have tested positive for the virus had returned from their homes after availing leave and were sampled for travel history. They were under quarantine at the PTS Kathua.
With this, over one and a half dozen police personnel of the PTS Kathua have so far tested positive for COVID-19.
Three other positives of Kathua district hailed from Basohli, Govindsar and Kathua and were under quarantine.
Meanwhile, 1529 persons today entered Jammu and Kashmir from different parts of the country through Lakhanpur, gateway of the Union Territory, Bhagat said.
Three more CRPF personnel today reported Corona positive in Doda district. All of them belonged to the same battalion whose 10 jawans have already tested positive for the virus.
Three civilians, one of them a student, tested Corona positive in Rajouri district, according to SSP Rajouri Chandan Kohli.
They include a student of South Kashmir’s Pulwama district and two civilians hailing from Gadyog Budhal with travel history of Maharashtra and Saj Thannamandi who had returned from Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh.
Two persons have tested positive for the virus in Udhampur district including a 32-year-old woman hailing from village Amroh in Ramnagar tehsil, a Red Zone and a traveler.
Reasi, Kishtwar and Poonch districts didn’t report any Corona positive cases today.
Meanwhile, 23 Corona patients were today treated and discharged from different COVID hospitals in Jammu region including 12 in Udhampur and 11 in Kathua districts.
Of them, two patients were discharged from the Chest Diseases Hospital, Bakshi Nagar, Jammu, Medical Superintendent Dr Rajeshwar Sharma said.
As per the official figures, Jammu region now has 1773 Corona cases but, out of them, only 462 are active. As many as 1297 persons have been treated for the virus and discharged from various hospitals while there have been 14 deaths in the region.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
