Spurt in cases, Chandigarh daily count hits 122

Naina Mishra

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 6

The city today reported 122 cases of Covid-19, the highest since December 8 when 126 city residents had tested positive for the virus.

The Centre today also raised concerns over the increased number of cases being reported from the city daily and directed the UT Administration to increase the ratio of RT-PCR tests. Of late, Chandigarh and eight states have seen increased positivity rate and a rise in the daily case count.

The rising cases continue to be matter of concern as the UT is seeing a decrease in total tests being conducted, low share of RT-PCR tests, increase in weekly positivity rate and less contact tracing of the Covid positive cases, the Centre has pointed out.

Arun Gupta, Principal Secretary, Health, UT, said, “We are going to increase the share of RT-PCR tests as directed by the Centre. We are going to test symptomatic patients with RT-PCR and those who were previously tested with antigen. The current ratio of antigen tests and RT-PCR in Chandigarh is 60:40.”

“We have already increased our weekly tests to 12,000 from 8,000 conducted in the first week of February. The rising positivity rate is also a matter of concern. The Centre has also asked to improve the vaccination coverage so that more people are immunised against the disease,” added Gupta.

The Centre reviewed the ongoing public health measures of surveillance, containment and management of Covid cases in the wake of a rise in the daily infection count and a high active caseload.

32,288 given first dose in Chandigarh

As many as 32,288 beneficiaries have been given the first dose of the Covid vaccine in the city so far. A total of 2,731 beneficiaries were vaccinated on Saturday. Among them 1,615 were above 60 years of age and 179 were in the age group of 45-59 with comorbidities. The total vaccine coverage among health workers has reached 48.9 per cent. It is 49.72 per cent in the case of frontline workers. TNS

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