Chandigarh may have reached herd immunity, says PGI Director

Naina Mishra

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 28

The Covid-19 cases this month reduced by half from the previous month, while the percentage of active patients is just 0.7 per cent in Chandigarh. The weekly growth rate of Covid cases is barely 0.1 per cent.

Against the number of Covid-19 confirmed cases, there remains a major proportion of the population that got infected with the virus but did not know about it as they were asymptomatic. There is a possibility that herd immunity may have been developed due to which the Covid-19 transmission has slowed down here. – Dr Jagat Ram, PGI Director

PGI Director Dr Jagat Ram said: “The reason for the low number of cases being reported is a greater number of people developing immunity against the infection in the city.”

“Against the number of Covid-19 confirmed cases, there remains a major proportion of the population that got infected with the virus but did not know about it as they were asymptomatic. There is a possibility that herd immunity may have been developed due to which the Covid-19 transmission has slowed down here.”

Dr Rajesh Kumar, former head of the School of Community Medicine, PGI, said: “The super-spreaders living in colonies in Chandigarh had contracted Covid-19 much earlier. With them developing antibodies against the infection, the chances of spreading it to other places also reduced. This has also hampered the Covid-19 transmission here.”

Last month, the city reported 2,273 cases of Covid-19. The cases this month halved to 1,071. The positivity rate has also reduced to 3.5 per cent from 6 per cent in December.

The testing has, however, dipped by 20 per cent from the previous month.

Dr Amandeep Kaur Kang, Director, Health Services, Chandigarh, said: “The testing reduces every time less number of cases are reported. Besides, people are not getting themselves tested voluntarily for Covid now.”

Only 17 Covid deaths were reported in Chandigarh this month against 39 deaths in December.

A total of 17,599 people out of every 10 lakh in Chandigarh have tested positive for the virus. For every 100 confirmed cases, 98 have recovered.