Rising Covid cases leave Kangra officials worried

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, September 18

The increasing number of Covid cases, especially in rural areas, has the Kangra district health authorities worried. The health authorities fear that people having mild Covid symptoms are not reporting at the hospitals. They are not getting themselves tested and are ignoring all precautions, leading to the community spread of the pandemic in the region.

The health authorities are also of the view that people are not apprising the authorities about their health conditions even when they show Covid symptoms. They come to hospitals only when their condition worsens and it is difficult to save them.

GD Gupta, CMO, Kangra, told The Tribune that some of the deaths from Covid in Kangra district occurred as people arrived at hospitals late. He said that due to the increasing number of cases in Kangra in the last few days, an advisory was issued today to people to not ignore even simple flu-like symptoms. In case they develop flu-like symptoms, they should get themselves tested for Covid at the nearest health facility and inform on 104 or 1077 toll free numbers.

The CMO said that it had come to their knowledge that in some cases even when people were having Covid symptoms, they were roaming in markets and other areas leading to the community spread of the virus. “We are informing the district administration regarding those who are not following home isolation conditions and strict action will be taken against them,” he said.

In Kangra district, the health authorities have till date collected 55,886 samples of which 1,743 have tested positive. This means the infection rate in the district is 3.1 per cent of the total tested samples. The district has reported 24 deaths due to Covid, the highest in the state.