To contain surge, Central teams in Punjab, Chandigarh
On 10-day visit, PGI, NCDC experts to assist with surveillance, testing
Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, September 6
The Health Ministry today rushed a Central team each to Punjab and Chandigarh, which have been witnessing a case surge.
The teams will assist in improving containment, surveillance, testing and clinical management of Covid patients to reduce mortality apart from providing guidance on timely diagnosis and follow-up. The teams will remain stationed in the state and UT for 10 days.
The Punjab team consists of PGI (Chandigarh) community medicine expert JS Thakur and National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Deputy Director Akshay Kumar. The Chandigarh team includes PGI doctor PVN Laxmi and the NCDC’s Sahil Goel.
Of the 60,013 total Covid cases in Punjab, 15,731 are active. The state has seen 1,739 deaths and the testing per million stands at 37,546 (India’s average is 34,593.1). At 4.97 per cent, Punjab’s positivity rate hovers at the lower cumulative spectrum.
Of the 5,268 total cases in Chandigarh, 2,095 are active. The testing per million and the cumulative positivity in the UT are 38,054 and 11.99 per cent, respectively.
Side story
Relapse new worry, B’luru sees 1st case after Mumbai
Covid re-infection is emerging as a new area of concern with Bengaluru reporting relapse of the viral infection on Sunday just three days after Mumbai saw a similar case.
A private hospital in Bengaluru confirmed Covid re-infection in a 27-year-old woman who had tested positive in July and had been discharged after recovery.
On September 3, a Mumbai doctor tested positive for the second time in a month.
Hong Kong researchers were the first worldwide to document Covid relapse on August 24 after which the US reported a re-infection in Nevada.
India, which saw the case load surging to 41,13,811 on Sunday after a record 90,632 daily infections, is starting to see re-infections with the trend causing worry in medical circles as India overtook Brazil to become the world’s second most Covid-hit nation on cumulative infections today.
Meanwhile, nationally, 31,80,865 people have recovered from Covid as of today, taking the cure rate to 77.32 per cent. India saw a record 73,642 recoveries in 24 hours.
The toll has hit 70,626 after 1,065 deaths in 24 hours and the national fatality rate has fallen to 1.72 per cent.
