Chandigarh, you survived coronavirus, now watch out for accidents

CHANDIGARH: The trauma and roadside accident cases, which fell to a new low in the government hospitals during two months of Covid-19 lockdown, are back to the old level soon after traffic restrictions eased.
In the two months of lockdown, the cases had dropped from 14 to 50%. Doctors in the PGI (Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research) and Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector, 32 attribute their resurge to Unlock 1.0 and the fact that only a few hospital now deal with these cases.

In March, the PGI counted 14% drop in trauma cases as compared with the previous year. The OPDs (outpatient departments) were shut from March 20. The fall during subsequent lockdowns from March 24 to date is 50%. Now these cases have started coming up at almost the same rate as pre-lockdown.
In the GMCH-32, an average of 10-to-15 major trauma cases and 3-to-4 of emergency trauma OT, are reported daily. GMCH head of orthopaedics Dr Sudhir Garg said: “This is almost 80% of the pre-lockdown count. The main reason is that most private hospitals now shy away from performing these surgeries, since they can't do the prerequisite Covid-19 test. So they refer these cases to government hospitals. People rive more rashly on emptier roads. Having been shut indoors for long, they are breaking their chains.”
At the start of the lockdown in March, the GMCH counted 25% reduction in the number of trauma cases. As the duration increased, the numbers decreased by 47% in little more than a month, till May.