Village in Pb's Mohali district becomes new COVID-19 hotspot with 22 cases

With 22 confirmed COVID-19 cases, Jawaharpur village of Dera Bassi in Punjab's Mohali district has become a new coronavirus hotspot in the state, officials said on Thursday.

Overall, Mohali district has topped the COVID-19 tally in Punjab with 37 cases.

"One more positive case in Jawaharpur," Mohali Deputy Commissioner Girish Dayalan tweeted on Thursday.

Till Wednesday, Jawaharpur reported a total of 21 cases.

The health authorities in Mohali district are conducting extensive sampling of the contacts of the coronavirus patients.

The district administration has completely sealed the entry points to the village -- located near Delhi-Ambala National Highway and deployed police to stop the movement of people.

"House to house survey on in neighbouring villages also. 54 more samples taken. Sealed villages of Mukandpur, Devi Nagar and Haripur Kurha as well," Dayalan tweeted.

The first person to contract the infection was a 42-year-old man -- a panch of Jawaharpur village -- on April 4, officials said. Since then, 20 more people have been infected with the virus.

Most of the positive cases are members of the panch's extended family, they said.

Officials suspect that the panch contracted the infection after coming in contact with some workers who in turn had met Tablighi Jamaat members.

None of the patients had a travel history, they further said.

Dayalan said they have been conducting extensive testing of contacts of positive cases.

"For each positive contact, we have been tracing and testing 25-55 people. We are not hiding behind numbers. For Jawaharpur (village), we have done 142 samples following contacts. Total samples taken in district is 629," said Dayalan.

"Meanwhile, the district administration has prepared a contingency plan to quarantine potential patients in case of geometric increase in subsequent stages of pandemic," Dayalan added.

Dayalan said the administration has ample quarantine facilities but an acute spike may require segregation of COVID-19 positive patients.

"Patients from densely populated areas or slums can't be home quarantined so to check the spread of contagion, it is necessary to earmark places where they can be made to stay," he said.

In line with this, the district administration has tied up with Chandigarh University which has provided a dedicated 1,000 bed isolation facility.

Similarly, to minimise response time, the administration has sought support from higher education institutions in the district to reserve their vacant hostels for quarantine purposes.

The symptomatic cases would be quarantined in various hospitals while the asymptomatic cases need to be quarantined away from home so as to ensure that the community spread doesn't take place, he said.

Dayalan exhorted the educational institutions to share information about vacant hostel rooms with the district administration, conceding to which they furnished the approximate number of rooms/halls/classrooms that could be used as a quarantine facility, on the spot.

Bed space for nearly 4,000 patients was assured, he said.