Shimla, Jul 2 () Thirty-two people, including 23 ITBP jawans, tested positive for COVID-19 in Himachal Pradesh on Thursday, taking the state's tally to 1,012, officials said.
Of the 23 ITBP jawans, 17 were found positive in Kinnaur district while six in Shimla district, they said.
Kinnaur Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Sonam Negi said that ITBP Battalion, stationed at a camp in Jangi of Kinnaur district, was sealed to check the spread of the infection as 17 ITBP jawans tested positive for COVID-19 there.
The CMO said that all the 17 jawans had come to Kinnaur in an Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) vehicle from Jammu and were already quarantined.
Earlier on Wednesday, ITBP's Reckong Peo Battalion in Kinnaur district was sealed after declaring the area as cantonment zone after five ITBP jawans had tested positive, Kalpa sub-divisional magistrate Avaninder Sharma said.
In Shimla, six ITBP jawans of 43rd Battalion in Jeori of Rampur tehsil also tested positive on Thursday, Rampur sub-divisional magistrate Narendra Chauhan said.
The jawans, who had recently returned to Rampur after leave, were placed under quarantine in SJVN premises, he added.
All these ITBP jawans were asked to return to their battalions as their leaves had been cancelled after the Indo-China border standoff in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh on June 15.
Of the 32 fresh cases, 17 were reported from Kinnaur district, six from Shimla, three from Hamirpur, two from Kangra and one each from Lahaul-Spiti, Mandi, Sirmaur and Bilaspur districts, Additional Chief Secretary, Health, R D Dhiman said.
In Hamirpur, three people, including a woman, tested positive, a district official said.
The three fresh cases included a 48-year-old Delhi returned woman from Bani village of Barsar, a 78-year-old man of Taringar village of Kot, who was primary contact of a COVID-19 patient and a 59-year-old Ludhiana returned man from Bharnang village, he added.
In Kangra, a 22-year-old Kyrgyzstan returned woman from Sanot village and a 65-year-old woman from Ghamala village who was a contact of a COVID-19 patient tested positive, a district official said.
In Mandi, a 31-year-old man, who had returned from Dubai, tested positive for novel coronavirus, he said.
Meanwhile, 12 patients --- five from Hamirpur, three from Solan, two from Una and one each from Shimla and Kangra -- recovered from the infection on Wednesday, Dhiman said.
So far, 629 people have recovered, while 13 have migrated out of the state, he said.
The number of active COVID-19 cases in the state stands at 359 and fatalities at nine.
Kangra has the maximum number of active cases in the state at 108, followed by 85 in Hamirpur, 47 in Solan, 27 in Kinnaur, 23 in Una, 21 in Shimla, 19 in Bilaspur, 10 in Sirmaur, nine in Mandi, six in Chamba, and four in Lahaul-Spiti. DJI CORR KJ KJ