Green zone Uttarkashi reports first Covid-19-positive case

Dehradun: Uttarkashi district, which was in ‘green zone’, recorded its first Covid-19 case late on Saturday after a migrant worker who returned from Surat in Gujarat tested positive, making it the fifth Covid-19-positive case of a migrant worker returning to Uttarakhand from other states in the past two days. Earlier, four migrants in Udham Singh Nagar had tested positive.With the new case, the state’s tally has now reached 68.
Uttarkashi chief medical officer Dr DP Joshi confirmed that the Covid 19-positive patient had returned to his village in Dunda block of Uttarkashi on May 8 along with three others on bikes.
“Four people drove two bikes from Surat to Uttarkashi, almost 1,700 km in four days and reached here on May 8. We have scanned all of them and while three have been kept in institutional quarantine, the person who tested positive was brought to hospital as he was symptomatic,” he said, adding that his samples were sent for testing to All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) Rishikesh where his samples tested positive late on Saturday.
Uttarakhand has a total of 21 active cases, including nine in US Nagar, eight in Dehradun, two in Haridwar and one each in Uttarkashi and Nainital. While the state health department has tested 9,668 samples till now, the positive rate of samples in the Himalyan state is 0.75%. The state has now a 67.65% recovery rate.
The maximum samples, 3,928, were tested from Dehradun followed by 1,736 in US Nagar. As many as 1,472 samples were tested from Haridwar and 1,184 from Nainital. No hill district, apart from Nainital, has seen major testing till now.
Meanwhile, local residents expressed concern over the increasing number of migrants coming to Uttarkashi from other states and districts, after the migrant worker who came from Surat was found Covid-19-positive. Zila Pradhan Sangathan of Uttarkashi demanded to keep all migrants in institutional quarantine facilities.
Pratap Rawat, president of Pradhan Sangathan, said, "Many migrants are getting quarantined inside panchayat buildings and government schools of their respective villages. Quite a few are breaking quarantine rules. Due to this, local villagers are getting agitated."
Uttarkashi district magistrate Ashish Chauhan meanwhile said that “residents shouldn’t panic and stay away from rumours.”
(With inputs from Abhyudaya Kotnala)