Covid: May dealt a deadly blow in Chandigarh

Naina Mishra

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 31

May remains the worst month on the Covid front with the city seeing over 17,000 cases and 275 deaths.

The UT Health Department conducted over one lakh tests and 17 per cent tested positive for the virus.

• Also read: Covid-19: Chandigarh sees 8 deaths, 124 cases
• Chandigarh Administration braces for ‘third wave’ of Covid
• Oxygen audit: UT manages to reduce Oxygen consumption by 20-25%

The month was marred by patients searching for ventilator beds in hospitals, gasping for oxygen.

The second wave in the city started in the second week of March with more than 100 cases being reported daily. There was a gradual increase in the daily cases with the highest single-day tally — 895 — recorded on May 9. After this, the cases started declining.

During the month, the health infrastructure was overwhelmed as ICU beds with ventilators remained occupied, leaving patients struggling for critical care beds. On May 6, there was no ventilator bed vacant at the city government hospitals.

The month also witnessed a scarcity of oxygen due to which, the oxygen quota allotted by the Centre was revisited by health officials to ensure optimum utilisation of oxygen in hospitals.

In the last week of the month, the number of new infections has grown by an average of 0.3 per cent every day. The active cases have reached 3.6 per cent in the city with a constant decline in the cases. Dr Amandeep Kang, Director, Health Services, said the case doubling time in the city was now 242 days. She also mentioned that the recovery rate was 95.2 per cent and 3,43,300 Covidshield vaccine doses had been administered to residents.

Dr Jagat Ram, Director, PGI, said they had 232 Covid patients at the PGI — 37 from Chandigarh, 112 from Punjab, 39 from Haryana, 28 from Himachal Pradesh and 16 from other states. He said they had admitted 135 patients suffering from mucormycosis (black fungus).

City saw 17K cases 275 deaths

Overwhelmed infra

During May, the health infrastructure of the city was overwhelmed as ICU beds with ventilators remained occupied, leaving patients struggling for critical care beds. On May 6, there was no ventilator bed vacant at the city government hospitals.