Strict weekend curbs likely as Mohali logs steepest spike of 31

MOHALI: The district administration was deliberating over strict weekend restrictions as Mohali recorded the highest number of Covid-19 cases for the second day running with 31 testing positive on Monday following 26 cases on Sunday. This takes the district’s count to 423. Of the 31 patients, 14 were women and two were minor boys.

Concerned over the increasing Covid-19 cases, Mohali deputy commissioner Girish Dayalan on Monday directed the entire safety protocol enforcement team, including municipal corporation and municipal council officials and subdivisional magistrates to activate teams for stricter enforcing of social distancing and wearing of masks in critical crowding locations such as market areas, malls, restaurants/eateries, public offices and banks immediately.

With the increased transportation/commuting relaxations in the ongoing unlock phase, a disease surge was expected because of which safety measures had to be implemented.

Denying that authorities had been lax in imposing rules, Dayalan said, “the cases that have surfaced are not due to people coming on their own to flu centres/hospitals for checking. Rather, the administration is going for extensive sampling of target groups( contacts of active cases, travel history) which has led to surfacing of positive cases.”

Those testing positive on Monday included five persons from Kharar, including a man, 82, a woman, 33, and a boy, 11, a 70-year-old man from Dashmesh Nagar and a 51-year-old man from Sunny Enclave.

Others included a woman, 60, and a boy, 4, from Sector 116; a woman, 80, and a man, 59, from phase- 4; a woman, 22, from Kumbra; two women, 67 and 35,from Sector 97; a man, 40, from Balongi, three women, 55, 25 and 20, from Lalru; a woman, 50, from Sector 88; a man, 45, from Phase-3 B2 and another man, 64, from Phase-6.

Six people, including three teenagers: two males, 16, and a female, 17, were among those infected in Peermuchalla in Zirakpur, where a woman, 36, and three men, 20 and 35, also tested positive. Five men, including two 19-year-olds and others

aged 45, 50 and 53, were from Avinash Colony in Dera Bassi.

Most of the patients were contacts of other Covid-19 cases and had travel history, said Dr Manjit Singh, civil surgeon, Mohali. “Most of the patients are asymptomatic and are responding well to the treatment.”

All the patients had been admitted to Gian Sagar Hospital in Banur, he added.

Of the 423 cases, 271 have recovered, 145 are active and seven persons have died.

Dayalan also confirmed that Behda in Dera Bassi had been declared a containment zone as it had over 15 cases. The Majat village charcoal factory and Peermuchalla were now micro containment zones (with more than five but less than 15 cases). Sector 66 Mohali had been declared a cluster (with more than two but less than 15 cases).