Shopian in trouble again as 16 members of a family, a meat seller, and a bread maker test positive

Shopian in trouble again as 16 members of a family, a meat seller, and a bread maker test positive

Shopian: Officials in Shopian are wondering how 16 people from Chatwatan village tested positive for the novel coronavirus as none of them has travel history or contact with any known Covid patient.
There are apprehensions of a cluster of infections as one bread maker and one mutton seller are among those found positive from two different villages which were declared red zones earlier.
On Friday, Shopian district reported 18 fresh Covid-19 cases, among whom 16 are from one joint family of three brothers, one bread maker from Meminder village, and one meat seller from Palpora village.
A health official said that the administration and medical staff were doing a good job containing the virus but things have taken a bad turn again. “The outbreak can lead to more in the district,” he said.
Dr Muhammad Yousuf Naikoo, Block Medical Officer in Shopian, told Kashmir Reader that one pregnant lady from the family tested positive had recently gone to district hospital Kulgam for delivery of her child and her samples were taken from there. “We were told that some issues regarding the delivery had taken place which forced doctors to shift her to LD hospital (in Srinagar). On the next day she was found positive,” Naikoo said.
Dr Naikoo added that soon after the woman’s report came, all primary and secondary contacts of the woman were taken for quarantine and their samples were taken on the same day. “Today we received the reports and 16 people among them are positive,” he said.
The Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Shopian said that the pregnant woman had probably contracted the virus at Kulgam district hospital, as well as her family members who visited her in the hospital.
“We are tracing all the contacts and taking samples, but the bread maker and the meat seller are making it difficult for us as they did their business throughout the lockdown,” the CMO said.
When asked why the samples of the bread maker and the meat seller were taken for tests, the CMO said that the health department had recently conducted screening of more than 400 service providers in red zones and these two were suspected of the infection.
More than 4,000 people in Shopian have been tested and 125 found positive so far. However, 98 people have recovered from the disease.
Shopian was breathing a sigh of relief in recent days as no new cases had been reported.

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