Chandigarh: Community spread alarm over few cases

CHANDIGARH: As many as 22 out of 187 people who had reported to PGI with severe acute respiratory symptoms over a few days had tested positive for Covid-19, sparking alarm in Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) that they could be victims of community spread.
The country’s top research body is now going to conduct a second study to check whether this premise is true or not. This because all of them had no travel or contact history. They are from Chandigarh, Punjab and Haryana.
In February, a study from ICMR published in Indian Journal of Medical Research had found that Covid-19 positivity among severe acute respiratory infection patients was 1.8% out of 5,911 samples tested between February 15 and April 2. Among the 965 samples tested between February 15 and March 19, only two had tested positive, but when the testing strategy was expanded to include all such patients, out of 4,946 samples, 102 (2.1%) were found positive.
At the same time Punjab governor and UT administrator V P Singh Badnore on Monday, directed his officials to start operating 100-bed Covid hospital in Sector 48 within this week. Also, PGI has been asked to give its consultation to contain the spread in the Bapu Dham Colony. A committee was formed.