Covid cases mild, but virus spreading, don't lower guard: PGI expert

Tribune News Service

Naina Mishra

Chandigarh, June 12

With a sudden spurt in Covid-19 cases, the positivity rate has shot up from 1.72 per cent reported a week earlier to 3.83 per cent. A PGI expert has pointed towards an increasing trend in cases and has cautioned that even patients with mild symptoms need to take precautions so that they do not cause the spread.

There has been an upward trend in cases recently. Patients and healthcare workers have started turning Covid positive. In the past 10 days, around 10 healthcare workers have tested positive. The good thing is that most patients have mild symptoms. Dr PVM Lakshmi, Dept of Community Medicine & Public Health, PGI

In the past three days, 118 cases of Covid surfaced in the city. The positivity rate had been stagnant at around 1 per cent in the past month in the city. Dr PVM Lakshmi from the Department of Community Medicine and Public Health, PGI, said, “There has been an upward trend in cases recently. Patients and healthcare workers have started turning Covid positive. In the past 10 days, around 10 healthcare workers have tested positive. The good thing is that most patients have mild symptoms.”

Dr Lakshmi said, “Reinfection has been seen in one case that had tested positive in January when Omicron was circulating. This suggests that immune escape may have been happening with the present circulating variant. As per the available evidence, BA.2 (sub-lineage of Omicron) has cross immunity with the Omicron variant but the cross immunity is poor with BA.4 and BA.5. The genome surveillance results will clear the picture about whether the BA.4 and BA.5 variants have a presence in Chandigarh. The previous results have indicated the presence of BA.2 in the city.”

The only way forward is to test influenza-like Illness and severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) patients and isolate them. Patients who have cold and cough should isolate themselves or at least should wear a mask to prevent the infection from spreading to others, added Dr Lakshmi.

Chandigarh now has 196 active cases, of which six are in hospital. The remaining are under home isolation.

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