Bathinda: The district health authorities are baffled after 38 people, including 28 police personnel, have tested positive for coronavirus from a single source in the past four days.

Official sources said the number may swell further as testing and tracing of contacts of all these asymptomatic patients is underway.

An assistant sub-inspector posted at Nathana police station, about 40 km from the district headquarters, first tested positive on July 22.

Two days later, most of the staff of Nathana, including the station house officer (SHO), were found infected with coronavirus.

District authorities said nine family members of the ASI and one nurse at the community health centre tested positive on Monday.

Since the ASI, who had a recent travel history, and other cops may have met several more persons before being tested, the administration has decided to launch intensive testing in the area.

Though Bathinda senior superintendent of police (SSP) Nanak Singh was not available for comment, inspector general of police, Bathinda range, Jaskaran Singh said the ASI had gone to Uttar Pradesh for investigation in a murder case.

“An accused was nabbed from UP who tested negative for coronavirus. But 28 other personnel at Nathana police station tested positive. They all are asymptomatic and being treated at the government isolation facility,” the IGP said.

Deputy commissioner B Srinivasan said the ASI had possibly contracted the infection in UP or while travelling back to Bathinda.

“The health department is working to trace primary contacts of all police personnel. It is a challenge to determine the possible source from where the ASI may have contracted the virus. Though no case of Covid-19 was reported earlier from Nathana, the health department has been directed to undertake intensive testing in the area,” the DC said.

RETURN OF MIGRANT WORKERS A CHALLENGE

Bathinda civil surgeon Dr Amrik Singh Sandhu said of the total 282 cases in the district, 140 alone are from a quarantine facility established by Guru Gobind Singh Refinery at Rama Mandi.

According to the DC, a large number of workers from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal had come to Bathinda to work at the refinery but all of them were sent to a 2,000-bed quarantine colony.

“The spike in the number of cases in Bathinda is due to the workers coming from different places. The source of their infection is still not known but the refinery management has ensured testing of each resident in the quarantine colony that is a separate place earmarked for workers on the refinery compound,” Srinivasan added.