Centre flags Covid surge in Chandigarh

Naina Mishra

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 6

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) on Tuesday listed Chandigarh, along with Punjab and other states, as the “states of concern”, in a media briefing on Covid-19.

According to the statistics shared by the Centre, there has been an increase in the average daily cases in the UT, from below 20 cases witnessed between February 10 and 16 to 287 during the period from March 31 to April 6.

The positivity rate has climbed up to 14 per cent now from 1.50 per cent in the second week of February. “Although Chandigarh is a small place with low population, the number of cases and the positivity rate have gone up, which is a matter of concern.”

Dr Amandeep Kang, Director, Health Services, UT, stated that they had conducted 31,394 Covid tests so far and the positivity rate was 12.7 per cent. In March this year, the positivity rate was 9.1 per cent, the fatality rate 0.5 per cent and the recovery rate 87.3 per cent. As many as 94,411 doses of the Covid vaccine have been administered till date, covering 60 per cent of frontline workers and 54 per cent of health workers. Vaccination was being done at 55 centres — 35 being run by the government and 20 by private entities. The PGI has admitted 170 Covid patients so far. About 50 per cent of them belong to Punjab, 25 per cent to Chandigarh and remaining to other states.

Dr Jasbinder Kaur, Director, GMCH-32, said, “It has been observed that many patients, who can be easily treated in various districts’ hospitals of Punjab and Haryana are unnecessarily travelling to the city and crowding the Covid beds at hospitals here.”

In order to accommodate more patients, the Sector 48 hospital has been operationalised by the GMCH-32. Besides, Sood Dharamshala will be opened tomorrow to take care of mild cases.