Around 167 people who are suspected of being infected from COVID-19 novel coronavirus has been missing in Ludhiana, while only 29 have been traced, says Dr Rajesh Bagga, the city’s civil surgeon.
He added, “Two teams have been tasked to find the people coming from abroad, in which police have been given responsibility for finding 119 people. They have found 12 people so far and the other team is from the health department, in which they were given the responsibility to find 77 people. 17 people have been traced by the health department team while rest of 167 people are still missing.”
In a bid to curb out the suspected infections, medical officials in Punjab received a list of people who returned to India and have been tracking down people on the basis of the list.
One of the major reasons that the officials aren’t being able to trace them is their wrong address and phone number that is mentioned in the passport. “Our teams are active and searching for them. They’ll be traced soon,” said the City’s Civil Surgeon.
Sanitization measures have been taking place at Ludhiana Railway station as a precautionary step to contain the spread of COVID-19.
Recently, in another incident of missing suspected cases, 353 passengers having a travel history from the coronavirus hit countries went untraceable as confirmed by the Department of Health and family welfare of Punjab on Saturday. The department noted that 6,692 people from Punjab were identified to have a travel history to coronavirus affected countries out of which 6,011 were traced, while 353 were missing.
An Irish national who was suspected to be infected by the coronavirus had absconded from SCB Medical College and Hospital in Odisha’s Cuttack was later found in a private hotel in Bhuvaneshwar. Reportedly, he had a high fever when he landed in Bhubaneswar International Airport and was immediately taken to the hospital for a mandatory thermal scanner screening after officials suspected him of carrying the virus. He was taken to the SCB from where he had gone missing. Later, the hospital lodged a case against the Irish national at the local Mangalapur police station.