With an unprecedented surge in Covid-19 cases in the past fortnight, Chandigarh is now among top three in the country with highest positivity rate suggesting that the union territory is facing a tough challenge to stem the spread of infection.
The city on Tuesday recorded a daily test positivity rate (TPR) of 23 percent. As far as the cumulative TPR is concerned, the union territory was at third place with a positivity rate of 14.5 percent. Not only this, Chandigarh has reported 6.2 percent average growth rate of infections, which is the highest in the country.
A day before, the city had recorded the highest daily TPR of 37.23 percent in the country followed by Puducherry at 26.44 percent. The country’s COVID-19 positivity rate stood at 7.50 percent, while the cumulative positivity rate was 8.57 percent. Positivity rate — the fraction of tests that return positive – is a crucial metric as experts say that a high positivity rate is also indicative of higher infection in the community and points to the need for ramping up testing.
A high positivity rate can also mean limited testing capacity — meaning only those most likely to be COVID-19 positive are getting screened and a large number of milder cases remaining undetected.
Chandigarh’s test positivity rate has shown no signs of calming down in the past fortnight as the number of positive cases are surging at a fast pace. From a positivity rate of 6.45 percent in April, 6.12 percent in May, 5.72 percent in June, 7.52 percent in July, the city has breached the 10 percent mark in the month of August.
Notably, the World Health Organization (WHO), as well as the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR), advise that testing be ramped up if the TPR exceeds 10 percent.
The total tally of positive cases in Chandigarh stood at 4550 which included 1939 active cases till Tuesday evening. Till date, 57 residents have succumbed to COVID-19 in the city. While 204 fresh cases were reported on Tuesday, the city had clocked its highest single-day spike with 261 cases on August 29.
The total samples collected for testing so far are 31268. The city’s testing rate was 150 a day in July, which jumped to 500 in early August and has now touched 700-900. In the past 24 hours, 891 samples were tested in the union territory.
As the COVID-19 graph continues to peak, Chandigarh had reported 3295 positive cases in the month of August. 41 residents succumbed to the deadly virus in the month of August while 15 fatalities were reported till July 30.
GRIM COVID-19 INDICATORS IN CHD
A higher positivity rate is not the only concern for Chandigarh as the city continues to maintain its worst record in COVID-19 parameters. The city has recorded 6.2 percent average growth rate of infections, which is the highest in the country. The average growth rate essentially means the speed at which COVID-19 infections increase.
The daily growth rate of COVID-19 cases, averaged over a seven-day period in Chandigarh has surpassed even the worst affected states of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and others in the country. The growth rate of fresh cases in neighboring states of Punjab and Haryana stood at 3.5 percent and 2.4 percent respectively.
With the city witnessing 57 deaths due to COVID-19, the fatality rate stood at 1.25 percent. As far as recoveries are concerned, Chandigarh has reported a recovery rate of 56 percent against the national average of around 76 percent. Till date, 2552 city residents have recovered from COVID-19. The active ratio of cases stood at 42.7 percent which means for every 100 confirmed cases, 42.7 are currently infected in the city.