Punjab reports 15 new cases, health minister says no community spread

Punjab Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu, however, said there was no community spread and in the past too there had been cases where similar cases were reported but an analysis showed that they may have come in contact with positive cases.

Punjab reported 15 new cases of novel coronavirus on Sunday, two of them without any travel or contact history, fuelling speculation about the community spread in Punjab.

Punjab Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu, however, said there was no community spread and in the past too there had been cases where similar cases were reported but an analysis showed that they may have come in contact with positive cases.

“There was a village sarpanch [testing positive] who used to visit Chandigarh to get the medicine,” the Health Minister said.

A health department functionary said one person each from Jalandhar and Pathankot who tested positive on Sunday did not have any travel history or contact with a positive person.

Punjab Health and Family Welfare Principal Secretary Anurag Agarwal said these may be “sporadic cases” but there was nothing suggesting community spread in the state.

A health official in Doaba region said that earlier there were at least three cases with private hospitals who got the tests done through “their facilities” which pointed out that the positive cases did not have any travel history or contacts of the positive persons. “But I am not sure whether we can say that community spread has started in the state.”

As per the media bulletin issued by the Punjab government, the state reported another death in Amritsar, taking the total tally to 40. The death, which occured on Saturday, was reported by this paper in a report published on Sunday.

With 15 new cases, the total tally of persons testing positive for novel coronavirus reached 2,060 on Sunday.

The number of active cases further reduced to 122. As per the bulletin, 1,898 patients have recovered.