Chandigarh logs 248 new COVID-19 cases as Centre deploys teams to monitor situation

Chandigarh on Friday reported 248 new COVID-19 cases taking the total number of cases in the Union Territory to 25,604.

Out of the total number of cases, 2,392 were active cases. The total death toll stands at 372.

Meanwhile, Punjab reported 3,176 fresh COVID-19 cases, 1,816 discharges, and 59 deaths today, as per the State Health Department. With this, the total cases mounted to 2,26,059 including 22,652 active cases and 1,96,831 recovered cases. The total death toll touched 6,576 including the new deaths.

This information comes when the Centre rushed high-level Central multi-disciplinary teams to Chhattisgarh and Chandigarh to assist the State/UT Government in COVID-19 control and containment measures.

These teams shall work with the respective State/UT Government to ascertain the reason/s for the surge, assist in undertaking gap analysis and recommend requisite COVID-19 control and containment measures.

The team to Chhattisgarh is headed by Dr S K Singh, Director, National Center for Disease Control (NCDC) and has experts from AIIMS, Raipur and All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health. The team to Chandigarh is led by Vijoy Kumar Singh, Additional Secretary and Financial Advisor, Ministry of Textiles with experts drawn from Dr RML Hospital, New Delhi and Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi.

Chhattisgarh has recently witnessed a significant spurt in fresh COVID cases as well as new deaths every day. Chandigarh has also seen a significant surge in new cases. The deployed teams shall visit the most affected districts/hotspots in the State/UT to take a stock of the on-ground implementation of public health interventions. They will share the key findings, recommendations and remedial measures to be taken up with the Chief Secretary/Chief Administrator.

"As a sign of relief, the cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country has crossed 5.69 crores today. A total of 5,69,57,612 vaccine doses have been given, as per the provisional report till 7 pm today," informed the Union Health Ministry.

These include 80,66,471 health care workers (HCWs) who have taken the 1st dose and 51,27,234 HCWs who have taken the 2nd dose, 86,79,307 frontline workers (FLWs) (1st dose), 34,96,356 FLWs (2nd dose), 2,57,01,645 beneficiaries more than 60 years old and 58,86,599 beneficiaries aged 45 and above with specific co-morbidities.

59,118 new daily COVID-19 cases reported in the last 24 hours.

( With inputs from ANI )