Spike in dengue cases in Chandigarh

Naina Mishra

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 16

Seeing a spike, the number of dengue cases in the city has crossed the 300 mark.

On Saturday, 32 city residents were found infected taking the cumulative number of cases this year to 365. The number of cases reported in October stands at 281. The number of cases recorded on Saturday was roughly double the average number of daily cases (17.5) reported in the 16 days of this month.

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While the reported cases in 2018 were 301, in 2019 and 2020 only 286 and 262 cases were reported respectively. Seeing the current trend of cases, the number of cases is expected to double this year.

The authorities have claimed that strict measures are being taken on the ground with respect to issuance and challan and measures such as fogging are being conducted. The rising number of cases, however, depicts a different reality.

Even though a record number of cases are being recorded, only four sectors were covered for fogging with vehicle-mounted machines suggesting that more efforts are required on this front.

Even though official data suggests that there has been a 309% rise in the number of challans issued for not adhering to the anti-dengue guidelines, the rise in the number of cases suggests that improvements are required in the way the authorities deal with this issue and bring in more effective measures for containment of this disease.

147 more test positive in Mohali

Mohali: A record number of fresh 147 confirmed cases of dengue have surfaced here during the past 24 hours, taking the number of cases to 1,411 in the district in the past two months. However, no death due to dengue was reported from across the district, said health officials. The number of deaths due to dengue remains at 12. Civil Surgeon Adarshpal Kaur said, “We have an alarming situation at our hands for which anti-dengue drives have already been started. But we need full cooperation of the residents. The number of anti-larvae teams has been increased as our primary aim is to check the spread of the vector-borne diseases.”