Daily Covid count goes past 100 for first time in Mohali

Regional transport authority Sukhwinder Kumar along with four employees of his office are among the 102 who tested positive on Monday, taking district’s total count past 1,900

The daily Covid count crossed the 100 mark for the first time in the tricity area, as Mohali district registered its steepest single-day spike of 102 cases on Monday.

Regional transport authority (RTA) Sukhwinder Kumar along with four employees of his office and one field employee of the tehbazari wing of the Mohali municipal corporation are among those who tested positive, taking the total number of infections in the district past 1,900.

The RTA office, located in the District Administrative Complex in Sector 76, has been sealed for three days and is being sanitised thoroughly. Even earlier, on July 24, an RTA employee had tested positive, which had led to a three-day closure.

Dr Manjit Singh, civil surgeon, Mohali, said the RTA and other infected government employees have been home quarantined as they are asymptomatic. “We will be taking samples of their family members,” he said.

Among the fresh cases, 43 are from Mohali subdivision, 30 from Kharar and 29 from Dera Bassi. The total number of infections has reached 1,911, of which 989 remain active. As many as 977 people have recovered so far, of whom 28 were discharged on Monday. The district has recorded 36 deaths related to Covid-19 so far.

Dr Singh said most of those tested positive are either contacts of already diagnosed patients or have travel history. Deputy commissioner Girish Dayalan, who reviewed the status of pandemic spread with health officials on Monday, said: “We expected the cases to surge at any given point of time. So, we prepared our Covid spike management plan well in time and have now put it into action.”