With the COVID-19 cases surging at a rapid pace in Chandigarh, the Central Government on Sunday deputed a two-member team of medical experts to assist the UT Administration in COVID related operations and contain the spread of infection in the city.
The move comes two days after the UT Administration had on Friday requested the Central Government to depute a team of medical experts in Chandigarh to deal with the COVID-19 crisis.
The union territory of Chandigarh is among the worst affected areas with the highest positivity rate and growth rate in COVID-19 cases in the country.
The total positive cases stood at 5763 including 2250 active cases till Sunday evening. 71 residents have so far died due to COVID-19 in the city.
“The Central team will be deputed for a period of ten days in Chandigarh to assist the UT Health Department for review of public health measures for COVID-19. The team include Dr PVN Laxmi, Department of Community Medicine, PGIMER and Dr Sahil Goel, Deputy Director, National Centre for Disease Control,” stated an order issued by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Affairs.
The order stated, “The high level teams will assist the union territory in strengthening public health measures for containment, surveillance, testing and efficient clinical management of COVID patients with the aim to reduce mortality and save lives. They shall also guide the UT Health Department in effectively addressing the challenges related to timely diagnosis and follow up.”
“Before concluding their visit, the team will meet UT Secretary Health for a briefing and submit a report of their observations and suggestions with a copy to the Union Health Ministry and bring to the notice to UT Administration and the Ministry any issue of urgent importance,” the order added.
During a meeting held with senior UT officers, the Union Home Secretary and Health Secretary had on Friday expressed concern over the worsening situation in Chandigarh and mismanagement of UT Administration in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Centre had also advised the UT Administration to proactively undertake comprehensive measures to break the chain of transmission of the infectious disease and lower mortality, such that it eventually dips below 1 percent.
POSITIVITY AND GROWTH RATE REMAIN HIGH
Since the beginning of the month of September, more than 200 COVID-19 cases are being reported in the city every day.
Chandigarh on Sunday reported 261 fresh infections. 234 COVID-19 cases had surfaced on September 5, 203 cases on Sept 4, 276 cases on Sept 3, 239 cases on Sept 2 and 204 cases on Sept 1.
Due to the sudden surge in positive cases, the city continued to record a high positivity rate and growth rate of COVID-19 infections. On Sunday, the city recorded a daily test positivity rate (TPR) of 28.4 percent. As far as the cumulative TPR is concerned, the union territory recorded a positivity rate of 16.3 percent.
In the past 24 hours, 919 samples were tested out of which 261 were tested positive. A total of 35288 samples have been so far tested in the city.
Apart from this, Chandigarh recorded 5.4 percent average growth rate of infections. The fatality rate stood at 1.23 percent while the recovery rate was 59.6 percent.
The active ratio of cases stood at 39 percent which means for every 100 confirmed cases, 39 are currently infected in the union territory
The first case of COVID-19 in the city was reported on March 19.
Notably, Chandigarh, which is a joint capital of Punjab and Haryana has an estimated population of 12 lakh.