Himachal COVID-19 tally crosses 200 as 18 news cases reported

Himachal Pradesh has recorded 18 more cases of COVID-19, taking the tally in the state to 204, officials said on Sunday. Two coronavirus patients from Bilaspur district recovered from the disease on Sunday, Additional Chief Secretary (Health) R D Dhiman said.

Ten of the fresh cases were reported from Una, two each from Hamirpur and Kangra and one each from Bilaspur, Chamba, Mandi and Solan districts, they said.

Of the 18 new cases, 12 had recently returned from other parts of the country including seven from Mumbai, three from Delhi and one each from West Bengal and Noida, they added. However, the travel history of six others, from Una, was not available immediately, they said.

However, regarding four other cases from the district, Una Deputy Commissioner Sandeep Kumar told PTI that a woman, her brother-in-law and two sons, who had returned from Mumbai recently, have tested positive for coronavirus. Hamirpur Deputy Commissioner Harikesh Meena said that a 20-year-old woman from Baragram in Badsar area and a 56-year-old man from Bagehra lower area of the Sujanpur sub-division have tested positive for COVID-19.

The woman had returned from Delhi along with her relatives on May 18 and was quarantined at the government high school, Baragram, whereas the man came back from Noida in a taxi on May 20 and was institutionally-quarantined at Government Senior Secondary School at Bir Bagehra, he added.

In Kangra, a man from Palampur's Panchrukhi tested positive for the virus, Superintendent of Police Vimukt Ranjan said, adding that he had returned from Delhi a few days ago and was kept under quarantine at a facility at Baijnath.

Besides, a 48-year-old taxi driver from Paisa village near Jawalaji also tested positive. He works as a taxi driver in Mumbai and returned from there with three others from Hamirpur district on May 14, he added. He was home quarantined due to some medical conditions and is being shifted to the zonal hospital in Dharamshala, he added.

In Mandi, a 19-year-old asymptomatic woman from Dharampur in Sarkaghat tehsil tested positive for COVID-19 and is being shifted to a COVID-19 care centre at Dhangshidar, a district official said.

She, too, had recently returned from Mumbai with her parents and all of them were in an institutional quarantine centre in Dharampur, he said, adding that the woman's parents have tested negative for the virus.

In Chamba, a 30-year-old youth tested positive. He was institutionally quarantined after recently returning from Mumbai and is being shifted to a COVID care centre at Balu, a district official said.

In Bilaspur, a man has tested positive after returning from Delhi on May 21, deputy commissioner Rajeshwar Goel said. A permanent resident of Mandi district, he was institutionally quarantined at Bilaspur's Swarghat on the Himachal Pradesh-Punjab border since his arrival from Delhi, he added.

The number of active COVID-19 cases in Himachal Pradesh now stands at 137 and 63 people have recovered so far, according to the officials.

Hamirpur has the maximum number of active cases in the state at 56 followed by 37 in Kangra, 13 in Una, 11 in Solan, nine in Mandi, four in Bilaspur, three in Chamba, two in Sirmaur and one each in Kullu and Shimla, they said. Four people have died due to COVID-19 in the state so far.

(Representative image: PTI)