Tricity’s daily Covid-19 cases saw further decline on Friday, but there was no respite from the contagion’s deadly blow as seven more people succumbed to the virus.
Chandigarh recorded four deaths, highest in the third wave, while Panchkula lost three residents. Since the peak of eight fatalities on January 16, tricity’s daily death toll has remained over four.
The fatalities in Chandigarh included three senior citizens. Among them, a 67-year-old, fully vaccinated woman from Sector 41, was suffering from hypertension.
The other two, a 63-year-old man from Hallomajra and a 60-year-old woman from Khuda Alisher were not vaccinated. Both were diabetes and hypertension patients, while the man was also suffering from kidney and heart diseases.
The fourth deceased, a 35-year-old man from Sector 44, was also not immunised and was suffering from acute respiratory distress.
All three patients who died in Panchkula were male senior citizens, aged 92, 83 and 63.
The eldest among them, a resident of Sector 10 and a diabetes patient, was not vaccinated.
The octogenarian, who lived in Sector 4, was completely inoculated, but was suffering from chronic kidney disease and chronic liver disease.
The third patient, from Sector 14, also had chronic kidney disease and diabetes. He was fully vaccinated.
{{/usCountry}}The third patient, from Sector 14, also had chronic kidney disease and diabetes. He was fully vaccinated.
{{/usCountry}}As many as 90 people have died due to Covid in the tricity in January so far, an almost 13 times spike from the seven deaths in December.
Daily case tally drops below 1,500 mark
On the bright side, tricity’s daily Covid tally dropped below 1,500 for the first time since January 8.
As many as 1,451 cases were detected, most of them from Mohali (693). Chandigarh and Panchkula logged 399 and 359 cases, respectively.
The positivity rate also recorded a significant dip in all three jurisdictions.
Compared to 37% on Thursday, Mohali’s positivity rate came down to 21%, though still considerably high. In Panchkula too, the figure saw a decline from 30% to 18.25%. At 8.6%, it was lowest in Chandigarh, after 15.5% the day before.
As more patients recovered in the past 24 hours, tricity’s active caseload dropped further to 12,506, lowest in over two weeks.
Mohali still has 6,528 infected patients, Chandigarh 4,647 and Panchkula 1,331.
Meanwhile, the UT administration ordered 12 new micro-containment zones in the city, sealing these areas and intensifying sanitation and monitoring activities.
Govt hospitals to take call on reopening OPDs next week
Amid the decline in cases, PGIMER will take a call on reopening its walk-in OPD facilities next week, the officials said on Friday.
The walk-in OPDs were suspended on January 10 and patients were being attended through tele-consultation since then. The UT administration had suspended the physical OPDs at GMSH, Sector 16, and GMCH, Sector 32, as well, the same day.
“Though daily cases among the healthcare workers have declined in the past few days, many are still in isolation, so the staff is not adequate staff to re-open the OPDs. We will wait for another week so that the infected employees can recover and resume work,” said Dr Suman Singh, director health services, Chandigarh.