With Sector 16, 18 and 21 residents among six fresh cases, UT fears community transmission
DURING REVIEW MEET CHAIRED BY BADNORE, ADMN DECIDES TO SEE WHETHER COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION STAGE HAS BEEN ENTERED
CHANDIGARH: A four-year-old son of the Central Industrial Security Force constable found infected two days back is among six fresh cases of Covid-19 reported in Chandigarh on Tuesday.
With this, the total number of cases has reached 326, of which 36 remain active.
The fresh cases have been reported from Sector 16, 18 and 21 besides Daria village and Manimajra. With new cases surfacing from areas other than the Bapu Dham Colony containment zone, the UT administration has decided to examine whether the deadly virus has entered the community transmission stage in the city.
The fresh cases include that of a 42-year-old man from Sector 18, who recently came in contact with a Himachal Pradesh resident who had returned from Delhi; a 28-year-old man from Subhash Nagar, Manimajra, who had returned from Gurugram on Sunday; and a 56-yearold woman from the hotspot Bapu Dham Colony.
The fifth case is of a 35-yearold man from Sector 16, who is the son of a medical store owner. Both the medical store owner and his wife have recent travel history to Sangrur, Punjab, and are symptomatic. The patient has three other family contacts besides six community contacts who are working in his father’s shop in Sector 16.
In the sixth case — that of a 43-year-old medicine distributor who works in Panchkula and resides in Sector 21 — the source of infection is not known yet.
As UT health officials are scrambling to trace the source of infection in non-containment zones, the risk of community transmission was discussed during the daily review meeting chaired by UT administrator VPS Badnore on Tuesday. Community transmission is said to be taking place when the source of the contagion is not known, ie when it is not possible to trace the infection back to a carrier who has travelled to an affected area or through contact with a person who has the disease.
Badnore asked the UT health secretary and doctors at Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) to examine the density of infection among various patients in Chandigarh and compare the data with other states.the administrator also directed the health authorities to keep all hospitals and health centres in readiness for accommodating patients, in case there is a second surge, as the borders are open.
CONSENT AWAITED FROM DELHI, HIMACHAL
As the consent from Delhi and Himachal Pradesh are yet to be received, bus travel to and from these states will have to wait.
The long-route buses will ply from ISBT, Sector 43, for the meantime. The department expects the vegetable and fruit market to be shifted back from
ISBT, Sector 17, to Sector 26 by June 15. After that both local and long-route buses will start from Sector 17. The tickets can be purchased online on CTU website (http://ctuonline.chd.gov.in) or on the mobile app CTU Musafir or at the counter in Sector 43.