Panchkula on Friday reported as many as 222 Covid-19 cases, its highest single day caseload since the district battled its first Covid peak last year when 251 cases were reported positive on September 18.
One Covid-related death was also reported in the district on Friday — a 64-year-old woman from Pinjore who was suffering from hypertension and heart disease.
The district had last witnessed 200+ cases in September on at least four days when 219 cases were reported on September 15, 242 on September 17, 251 on September 18 and 243 on September 22.
While the caseloads remain high, the number of deaths as opposed to the cases have remained low in the district.
With a rise in cases being reported, the active case tally, which had stood under 100 in January, has been more than 100 cases for the past three weeks and more than 200 in the first week of March, crossed the 300-mark on March 10 and 400-mark on March 16. Drastically growing, it stood at 859 on Friday. The recovery rate dropped down to 91.8 per cent.
Dr Jasjeet Kaur, CMO Panchkula, said, ” With 1000-plus active cases today, people of Panchkula should be concerned and adopt all possible prevention during the Holi festival. If the surge continues in this way, we will be stretching existing health infrastructure to a point that activities for breaking chain of transmission are compromised. Parallel management of COVID and vaccination drive is a challenge in itself. I appeal to residents to be responsible and wear masks, maintain appropriate social distancing and sanitize hands regularly. Otherwise post Holi we will simply not be in a position to check the transmission.”
District issues new orders for surveillance
As many as 13 containment zones and 12 surveillance zones have been created in the district where high caseloads have been detected. In a review meeting, DC Panchkula Mukesh Kumar Ahuja ordered all the incident commanders to coordinate with the teams of health department and police department to ensure maximum surveillance in these areas.