The Covid-19 cases in the union territory of Chandigarh raced past 7000 on Friday, just three days after hitting the 6000-mark.
With this, the infection has now spread to all sectors and villages of Chandigarh, which has recorded the second highest daily growth rate (seven-day compounded rate) of Covid-19 cases in the country.
As Chandigarh witnessed its fastest 1000 positive cases in just three days, the city clocked a big spike of 305 fresh cases on Friday. The tally of positive cases stood at 7292 while 83 residents have so far succumbed to the deadly virus.
At 4.7 percent average growth rate of infections, the city stands second in the country, just behind Chhattisgarh (5.6). The average growth rate essentially means the speed at which Covid-19 infections increase.
As per the mapping of Covid-19 cases done by Chandigarh Health Department, Manimajra has emerged as the Covid-19 hotspot recording 616 positive cases so far followed by 310 cases in Bapu Dham colony in Sector 26.
While a month ago, the Covid-19 cases were reported from 50 different sectors and 17 villages in the periphery of the city, the infection has not spread across all areas of the union territory, as per the mapping of cases.
In Sectors, a maximum of 226 infections have been reported in Sector 41. Apart from this, a high number of 204 positive cases are reported in Sector 45, 190 cases in Sector 22, 182 cases in Sector 15, 168 cases in Sector 20, 161 cases each in Sector 32 and Sector 40, 156 cases in Sector 38, 144 cases in Sector 27, 141 cases in Sector 44, 130 cases in Sector 23, 125 cases each in Sector 29, 118 cases each in Sectors 19 and 21 and 110 cases in Sector 47.
In the periphery areas of the city, a huge number of 210 infections have been reported in Mauli Jagran, 203 cases in Ram Darbar, 187 cases in Dhanas, 140 in Hallomajra and 105 in Burail till September 11.
Among 2606 active cases currently in Chandigarh, Manimajra again tops the list with 254 active cases followed by 93 in Sector 22, 79 cases in Sector 41, 73 cases in Mauli Jagran among other cases. A total of 2098 positive cases are reported from the periphery areas while the rest of the infections are reported from Sectors of Chandigarh. As per the mapping, 27 healthcare workers in Government Medical College and Hospital-32 have so far been found infected with the virus.
The mapping of 83 COVID-19 related deaths in the city also shows a maximum of six fatalities have been reported from Manimajra followed by five deaths in Sector 45.
Notably, Chandigarh, which is the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana, figures in the list of states and union territories having the worst COVID-19 parameters.
“The daily growth rate of COVID-19 cases is recorded at 4.7 percent in Chandigarh, more than double the national average of 2.14 percent,” said a senior officer in UT Health Department while talking to The Pioneer.
“The growth rate of infections in Chandigarh remained even higher than the worst affected states of Maharashtra (2.3), Tamil Nadu (1.2), Karnataka (2.2), Andhra Pradesh (2.1) and Delhi (1.7) in the country. The growth rate of cases in neighboring states of neighboring states of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal stood at 3 percent, 3 percent and 3.6 percent respectively,” the officer said.
“While the recovery rate has improved in the past one week and reached 63 percent, the growth rate of infection and cumulative positive rate (16 percent) remain high in the city,” he added.
The first positive case of COVID-19 in Chandigarh was reported on March 19. The cases had crossed 100-mark on May 4, 1000-mark on July 30, 2000-mark on August 15, 3000-mark on August 24, 4000-mark on August 30, 5000-mark on September 5 and 6000-mark on September 8.