11 Pak-returned Kashmiris sent home
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 16: For second consecutive day today, Jammu region didn’t report any Coronavirus positive case while first COVID patient in the Union Territory of Ladakh was discharged after more than month and a half leaving active cases in the UT to just four-three in Leh district and one in Kargil while 14 Kashmiri people including nine Medical students who had returned from Pakistan about a month back were allowed to go home from Amritsar and Lakhanpur border, which has been sealed for last several days but was opened for them as per the guidelines of the Central Government for foreign-returned people.
Fourteen people of Kashmir had reached Amritsar on March 19 from Pakistan following outbreak of Coronavirus pandemic in both India and Pakistan but were held up there for quarantine. They had completed 28-day quarantine and had also tested negative for COVID-19 in Punjab.
Deputy Commissioner Kathua OP Bhagat told the Excelsior that the border at Lakhanpur with Punjab, which has been sealed, was opened to facilitate the entry of foreign-returned students as per the advisory of the Union Home Ministry.
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“All 14 Kashmiri people including nine Medical students were sent to Kashmir in the SRTC buses after they passed through sanitization tunnels at Lakhanpur,” he said.
“We thank the Governments of Punjab and J&K for best possible arrangements and accommodations in Amritsar. We are happy that we are going back to our homes,” Mushtaq Ahmed of Srinagar, who had arrived in Amritsar from Lahore in Pakistan last month, said while speaking to reporters at Lakhanpur.
The travelers expressed happiness upon arriving in Jammu and Kashmir and began their journey back to their homes in Kashmir after undergoing the nearly month-long quarantine period in Amritsar.
Meanwhile, 137 more people were today released from quarantine centres in Kathua district and were sent to their homes. Till today, there were 337 more people undergoing 14-day mandatory quarantine at different places in Kathua district.
And the first Coronavirus patient in the Union Territory of Ladakh, a 74-year old from village Chushot Gongma in Leh district, was today discharged from SNM Hospital Leh after he tested negative for two consecutive times and underwent all other tests required for being allowed to go home from the hospital.
He had returned after pilgrimage from Iran and was the first to be tested positive for COVID-19 in Ladakh on February 28. He was in the hospital since then while 13 other COVID patients were hospitalized after him and had been treated and discharged in Ladakh.
The first patient’s wife, who had also tested positive later had also been cured but was kept in the hospital to assist her husband.
SNM Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr Tsering Samphel and senior Physician specialist Dr Tashi Thinles joined by other staff offered ‘Khataks’ to the first Corona patient as he left the hospital for home to village Chushot Gongma in an ambulance.
Ladakh Commissioner/ Secretary Health Rigzin Samphel gave all credit to doctors and staff of the SNM hospital who have been giving best possible medical help to the Corona patients.
“It’s a major boost for the Health Department of Ladakh which proves that dedicated team of doctors and health workers can overcome any challenge. I’m confident that very soon Ladakh will be free from COVID-19,” Samphel said.
Ladakh had a total of 18 COVID patients and now 14 of them have been treated and discharged from the hospitals leaving four active cases-three in Leh and one in Kargil.
Meanwhile, police today detained 11 passengers travelling in a truck from Udhampur to Kashmir at Batote.
Truck No. 0843 JK22B has been seized and 11 passengers travelling in it in violation of Government order of lockdown were sent for administrative quarantine at Government Higher Secondary School Batote.
A FIR No. 27 under Section 188 IPC has been registered against them.
The persons hailed from Shopian district.
Meanwhile, no COVID-19 positive case was reported from any part of Jammu region for second consecutive day today.
There were total 54 Corona cases in Jammu region and 44 active cases as nine patients have been treated and discharged while there was one death.
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