Amidst COVID-19 outbreak, 167 coronavirus suspected patients go missing in Ludhiana

Amid the Coronavirus outbreak across the country, Ludhiana city's civil surgeon Dr Rajesh Bagga said that at least 167 people suspected of having COVID-19 have been missing in the city while only 29 have been traced. Medical officials in Punjab had received a list of people who have recently returned to India and have been tracking down people on the list in a bid to ascertain infections if any.

'The rest of 167 people are still missing in Ludhiana'

"Two teams have been tasked to find 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," he said while speaking to news ANI. "17 people have been traced by the health department team. The rest of 167 people are still missing in Ludhiana," he added.

Kumar mentioned that the main reason behind the same is they are not able to trace all of them is due to either wrong address in the passport and telephone number. "The main reason behind this issue is that these people do not have the correct addresses and telephone numbers. It seems that the address and telephone numbers have changed," he said. "Our teams are active and searching for them. They will be traced soon," Kumar added.

Total cases in India rise to 148

The number of people infected with coronavirus has risen to 148 in the country, Union Health Ministry said on Wednesday. Out of these 148 people, 123 are Indians and 25 foreigners, the ministry further said.

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Giving state-wise break-up of the number of COVID-19 positive cases, the Health Ministry Data said that Maharashtra is at the top with 38 confirmed cases of Covid-19 followed by Kerala (25), Uttar Pradesh (15) and Karnataka (11). Over 5,700 people, who had come in contact with these positive cases, are under rigorous surveillance, the ministry said.

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More than 11,500 people were infected with the novel coronavirus globally on Tuesday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases above 179,000, the World Health Organisation said.

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(With agency inputs)