A sharp spike in Covid-19 positive cases has been witnessed in Chandigarh with eight new cases reported in last 24 hours.Father, mother, two sisters and a child, the primary contacts of Bapu Dham colony positive cases have been tested positive for Covid-19 (coronavirus).
While father was tested positive on late Saturday night, others turned out to be positive for coronavirus on Sunday. The Bapu Dham resident is a ward boy at Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH-32). A male resident of Vikas Nagar, Mauli Jagran, an attendant at GMCH-32, who is a work place contact of Bapu Dham positive case is also turned out to be Covid positive on Saturday night.
Two more nursing staff, one each from PGIMER and GMCH-32 were tested positive for Coronavirus on Sunday.
“A 26 years old female, living in a Hostel at Sector 12, who is a health worker at PGIMER and a 25 years old male resident of Sector 32, a health worker at GMCH-32 have been tested positive for Coronavirus,” said an official spokesman.
He said that five family members of Bapu Dham Covid positive case have also been tested positive. Till the filing of this story, report of 48 samples was awaited.
“The city has so far recorded 36 positive cases, out of which 17 have recovered,” the spokesman said.
The GMCH-32 ward boy (30) from Bapu Dham was booked on Saturday for violating curfew norms and other charges. He had organised a party to celebrate his wedding anniversary, inviting more than 40 people to his house in a triple-storey building in Bapu Dham Colony-26 including family members, children among them.
Giving details of contact tracing of Bapu Dham positive case, the spokesman said that among 124 community contacts identified, two have been sampled for test and results are pending. Among 20 work place contacts sampled, 19 have turned out to be negative and one living in Mauli Jagran has turned out to be positive.
The spokesman said that immediate family members of Mauli Jagran positive case have been tested and results are awaited. 44 community contacts have been home quarantined, he added.
About the fresh cases of health workers at GMCH-32 and PGIMER, the spokesman said that the contact tracing is ongoing.
So far, 756 samples have tested in the city and 677 have been found negative.
As a precautionary measure, 2307 residents have so far been put under home quarantine while 1694 have completed the quarantine period.
SPIKE IN CASES OF HEALTH WORKERS TRIGGERS CONCERN
With surge in the cases of health workers from PGIMER and GMCH-32 getting infected from Coronavirus, the development has sent alarm bell ringing in the UT Administration.
Four new cases related to health workers and other staff from hospitals has been reported in the city in last 24 hours.
UT Adviser Manoj Parida said that the Administration has directed the hospital administrations to follow the protocol to stop the spread of infection among healthworkers and other staff members in the hospitals.
Only a day before, Punjab Governor and UT Administrator VP Singh Badnore had expressed concern about the outbreak of a new positive case in Bapu Dham Colony, particularly because the area is quite congested and the patient used to work in GMCH-32. He had also expressed apprehension that if the major hospitals of the Chandigarh become a hub for infection, then the entire health management system will get crippled.
CHANDIGARH'S YOUNGEST POSITIVE PATIENT, 11-MONTH OLD BABY CURED
Chandigarh’s youngest Covid-19 patient, an 11-month-old baby girl, and her mother were cured and discharged from PGIMER’s dedicated Covid Hospital on Sunday after winning their hard fought battle against the highly contagious disease.
With their discharge, the number of patients declared cured and discharged from PGIMER’s Covid hospital rose to nine, said an official spokesman.
The recovered patients that were discharged had in all four members of their family tested Covid-19 positive and were admitted in PGIMER on April 3. The infant is the NRI couple who had come from Canada on March 13 and was tested positive of Coronavirus on March 30.
While the father was discharged a week earlier after he tested negative and with both mother and daughter discharged, three of the family are already cured whereas the grandmother of the child is still admitted in PGIMER.
Though discharged from PGIMER, the mother and daughter will be home quarantined for 14 days as per the standard protocol to be followed by all Covid-19 patients.
Prof. Jagat Ram, Director PGIMER was personally present on the occasion to compliment the mother-daughter duo on their successful recovery.
“There is always a silver lining in the dark clouds. In these extremely challenging times, this moment, when any patient gets discharged after being declared cured from Covid-19, is a moment of triumph and jubilation not only for the patient and his family but for the entire medical team. Today, it is all the more special because the recovery of the baby of Covid-19 was a huge challenge for the medical team due to her tender age,” he said.
Detailing about the importance of psychological interventions along with pharmacological treatment to help a patient fight Covid-19, Dr Swapanjit Sahu, Asstt. Professor, Deptt. of Psychiatry, PGIMER elaborated, “Though both mother and daughter were stable physically but psychologically it was very stressful experience to stay isolated from everyone.
The mother reported significant distress during her ward stay and was consistently counselled through video counselling, addressing her anxiety and anger. Things were slightly not in favour as despite being coming negative she had to stay for more days as the baby was tested positive again and again.”