One Army, 4 CAPF jawans among 61 new COVID-19 cases in HP, tally now 2,880

Sixty-one people, including four Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) personnel, one Army jawan and a lab technician at a medical college tested positive for COVID-19 in Himachal Pradesh, raising the state's virus count to 2,880 on Tuesday, official said.

Sixty-one people, including four Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) personnel, one Army jawan and a lab technician at a medical college tested positive for COVID-19 in Himachal Pradesh, raising the state's virus count to 2,880 on Tuesday, official said. The state has seen 13 deaths linked to the novel coronavirus so far.

Of the fresh cases, 17 were reported from Bilaspur, 13 from Solan, ten from Kangra, seven from Mandi, five from Sirmaur, three from Hamirpur, two each from Chamba, Shimla and Kullu and one from Una, Additional Chief Secretary (Health) R D Dhiman said. In Kangra, one Army personnel, four CAPF jawans and three Chandigarh returnees of a family including a couple and their 27-year-old son from Tiara are among the fresh cases, superintendent of police Vimukt Ranjan said. In Mandi, a laboratory technician posted at Nerchwok Medical College is among the fresh cases, a district official said.

The lab was being sanitised on Tuesday and Wednesday and no test will be conducted there for two days, Senior Medical Superintendent of the college Jeevanand Chauhan said. Besides, five men and a woman from different areas of Mandi also tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the district official said.

In Hamirpur, three returnees -- one each from Puducherry, and Haryana's Gurugram and Rewari -- tested positive, Hamirpur Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr. Archna Soni said. In Kullu, a 30-year-old woman and a 32-year-old man tested positive for COVID-19, Superintendent of Police Gaurav Singh said.

The Kullu SP said 16 primary contacts of the two fresh cases have been quarantined. In Shimla, a couple tested positive for COVID-19 at Jhalta village of Rohru subdivision, Rohru Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Babu Ram Sharma said.

The SDM said the couple had returned from Chandigarh on August 3 and were home quarantined. Fifty-two more patients -- twenty-three in Solan, ten in Shimla, eight in Kangra, five in Chamba, four in Sirmaur and two in Una -- recovered from the infection, Dhiman said.

So far, 1,710 people have recovered from the infection in Himachal Pradesh while 26 patients have migrated out of the state. There are 1,129 active COVID-19 cases in the state now, he said.

Solan has the highest number of active COVID-19 cases in the state at 403, followed by 157 in Mandi, 139 in Sirmaur, 119 in Kangra, 82 in Una, 71 in Shimla, 61 in Bilaspur, 36 in Chamba, 30 in Hamirpur, 20 in Kullu and 11 in Kinnaur.