Tricity sees steepest single-day spike with 218 new Covid cases

ON THE RISE Chandigarh records maximum recoveries in a day with 100 people being discharged

CHANDIGARH/PANCHKULA: With 80 Covid-19 cases recorded in Chandigarh, 76 in Mohali and 62 in Panchkula, the tricity witnessed its steepest single-day spike of 218 new infections on Monday.

The previous biggest surge came on August 8 when 209 people had tested positive for the disease.

Chandigarh’s tally has climbed up to 1,595, with 565 cases still active.

However, with record 100 recoveries registered on Monday, the total crossed the 1,000 mark. While 1,004 people have been discharged so far, 25 have died due to the disease in the Union Territory.

Among the fresh cases, there are two health workers from the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research and one from Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, while a judicial magistrate (first class) of the district court, Chandigarh, has also tested positive.

A senior UT health official said at least six employees of a newspaper published from Chandigarh have also tested positive in Panchkula. While two of them are from Chandigarh and have been added to the UT’s tally, one is from Zirakpur, he said.

The cases are spread across

urban and rural pockets, and are mostly contacts of already hospitalised patients. Some also have travel history to Punjab, Delhi and Gurugram. Out of the total 80, 24 have been diagnosed through rapid antigen testing, stated a release.

P’KULA TALLY AT 1,001

Panchkula district’s tally

reached 1,001 on Monday, with 408 cases still active.

Till July 31, there were 561 cases in the district. The remaining 440, which include 21 people deported from the US, have surfaced within just 10 days. As many as 590 patients have recovered so far while three have succumbed to the disease.

On Monday, majority of the infections were reported from urban pockets.

Sector 9 accounted for 12 cases while 10 people from Sector 10 tested positive too. Four cases each surfaced in Sectors 15 and 20 and three each in Sector 25 and Mansa Devi Complex’s Sector 5. The remaining were spread across the district, including Kalka and Pinjore.

Meanwhile, even as the number of cases is shooting up in the district, Panchkula police have decided to observe two-day “mask challan mukt divas”, wherein instead of issuing fines for not wearing masks, cops will distribute free masks to the violators and educate them about its importance.