Naina Mishra Tribune News Service Chandigarh March 17 As the UT completes one year of the Covid-19 outbreak today the virus transmission has again started to grip residents after a lull of four months taking the positivity rate of the city once again to the second highest in the country. Despite conducting more than the average number of tests in the country the UT positivity rate stands tall at 7.6 per cent only behind Maharashtra. Health experts have flagged the concern over the rising positivity rate despite a greater number of tests being conducted in the city. “If more tests are conducted and the positivity rate shoots beyond 5 per cent it implies that there is an outbreak in the community” said Dr Rajesh Kumar former head of the Department of Community Medicine and Public Health PGI. At one point of time the positivity rate of the city had dipped from 30.21 per cent on September 1 to 15 per cent on October 10 but it was still above the national average of 8.1 per cent. Even at that time the citys positivity rate was the second highest in the country next to Maharashtra. In the last week the number of new infections has grown exponentially by an average of 0.6 per cent every day. The growth rate is the third highest in the country. The first case was reported on March 18 last year. A 23-year-old woman who had returned from the UK had tested positive for Covid. From thereon a total of 23592 city residents have contracted the infection which comprises 2 per cent of the total population. For every 10 lakh people in the city around 239319 samples have been tested and 19840 have tested positive for the virus. Residents cooperation helped UT keep fatality rate minimal: Adviser UT Adviser Manoj Parida said “We fought a tough battle against Covid and brought it under control without causing much hardship to the common man. The outbreak in Bapu Dham was contained successfully. It is because of the cooperation of the people that our fatality rate has been minimal. We expect to get the same support from the city residents during the second surge. Since we cannot seal our borders banning entry from outside our success in fighting corona will depend on the performance of the neighbouring states.” Can fight 2nd wave with test track treat: PGI Director PGI Director Dr Jagat Ram said “The pandemic changed the healthcare system as it curtailed OPD services and affected the non-Covid patients. The institute had to start telemedicine to cater to the patients. The Nehru Hospital has attended to close to 3000 Covid patients. There is a need to prevent this second wave with the help of testing tracking and treating Covid patients.”

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