With the Covid-19 cases on the rise, the union territory of Chandigarh witnessed the highest single-day spike with 188 fresh positive cases and two deaths on Thursday.
Chandigarh has reported 5.8 percent average growth rate of infections, the highest in the country and more than double the national average.
The Covid-19 fatalities reached 43 while the total tally of positive cases jumped to 3564 in the city. Till now, 2516 positive cases have been reported in Chandigarh in the month of August.
The daily growth rate of COVID-19 cases, averaged over a seven-day period in Chandigarh has surpassed the worst affected states of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and others in the country. The neighboring states of Punjab and Haryana have recorded the daily growth rate of COVID-19 cases, averaged over a seven-day period at 4 percent and 2.3 respectively.
“There were 1544 active cases in Chandigarh till the evening. A record 181 recoveries were also reported in the city taking the total number of COVID-19 recovered patients to 1977,” according to the Chandigarh Health Department’s evening bulletin.
The recovery rate in the city was recorded at 55 percent against the national average of nearly 75 percent.
A day before, the city had seen 167 new positive cases while the previous record daily spike in numbers was reported on August 25 with 174 COVID-19 cases.
Giving details of the COVID-19 fatalities, the bulletin stated, “Two more residents succumbed to COVID-19 in the last 24 hours. A 75 years old male resident of Sector-46 expired due to severe acute respiratory failure at GMCH-32 on August 26. He was tested positive for COVID-19 on August 24. A 54 years old male resident of Sector-41 expired due to complex lung injury, respiratory failure and cardiac arrest at GMCH-32 on Thursday. He was detected with high uncontrolled sugar and tested positive on August 21.”
The fatality rate stood at 1.20 percent. Among 43 COVID-19 fatalities in the city, 39 patients had comorbidities while four patients were without comorbidities.
Of the total 188 cases reported, 115 were detected through antigen testing while the rest of the cases were reported through rapid antigen test. In the past 24 hours, the fresh COVID-19 cases were reported from Sectors 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 32, 33, 35, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 56, 61, 63, 38 west, Behlana, Burail, Dadumajra, Daria, Dhanas, Dadumajra, Kajheri, Hallomajra, Manimajra, Khuda Lahora, Maloya, PGIMER campus, Ram Darbar, Mauli Jagran and Raipur Kalan, the bulletin stated.
Among the fresh positive patients included a ten months old female child from Sector 15, one year old female child from Sector 25, one year old male child from Dadumajra, two years old male child from Manimajra and three years old female child from Sector 19, it further stated.
There were 170 COVID-19 patients admitted in NHE, PGIMER till the evening. Out of them 29 patients were admitted in the Intensive Care Unit.
27567 samples of city residents have been tested for the deadly virus so far. In the last 24 hours, 491 COVID samples were tested in the city, the bulletin added.
WORK AFFECTED, PART OF MC OFFICE SEALED
With positive cases of employees in UT Administration and MCC being reported in the past one week, the day-to-day functioning is now affected due to the COVID-19.
A part of Chandigarh Municipal Corporation’s office was sealed on Thursday morning for 48 hours after an employee was tested positive
A day before, two employees of the Registering and Licensing Authority were tested positive following which the RLA has been closed till August 29.
Earlier, the UT Deputy Commissioner's office and UT Estate office were also closed for a day for sanitization after employees were tested COVID positive.
Notably, two senior UT officers –UT Finance Secretary Ajoy Kumar Sinha and UT Deputy Commissioner Manjit Singh Brar- were also recently found infected and are currently on leave.
TEAMS CONSTITUTED FOR QUARANTINE CENTRES
The UT Administration on Thursday constituted teams of supervisors and various workers to ensure that the quarantine centers are well maintained and are in proper conditions. Apart from this, the proper arrangements for the sanitization and food will be done by the supervisors. The teams were constituted on the order of Sarpreet Singh Gill, UT Special Secretary Health, who visited Sood Dharamshala with the officials of GMCH 32 and Engineering Department, to review the food arrangements, sanitization, maintenance and upkeep work going on at the premises.
He directed the officials in charge to speed up the work at the COVID Care centers and to ensure that the maintenance is done within the given deadline.
To streamline the work, with the existing Executive Engineers deputed as nodal officers, the officer has made additional teams of supervisors and other workers for seven quarantine centers i.e. Government High School Sector 12 PGIMER, Government High School Raipur Kalan, Government High School Maloya-I, Chandigarh College of Engineering and Technology, 100 Bedded Hospital Sector 48, Sood Dharamshala Sector 22 D and Dhanwantry Ayurvedic College Sector 46.