Chahat Rana

The delay was made even as we were in direct contact with the patient,” says a member of the nursing staff at PGIMER who was one of the staff members exposed to the 65-year-old COVID-19 patient who passed away.

The Chandigarh Administration and officials from PGIMER, however, maintained that the patient was alive and on a ventilator and passed away on Tuesday morning.

Even as 12 persons suffering from the coronavirus disease are being treated at the hospital, the hospital staff faces a shortage of PPE, as claimed by a senior resident doctor of the hospital’s Anesthesiology department, Dr Dinesh Kumar.

The COVID-19 patient, who has no relevant travel history or history of contact with another positive case, was placed in the emergency ward and was in contact with the professionals, some of whom were not equipped with proper protective gear, before he tested positive for COVID-19

Dr Sonu Goel of PGIMER’s Department of Community Medicine and School of Public Health, talks about the Chandigarh Administration’s order to allow one person from each household to visit shops or markets near their house between 10 am to 6 pm.

"We will completely run out of money soon, so we cannot purchase this food regularly. We are relying on the little ration that is left at home," says Raja Ram, another construction worker residing in the colony with his three daughters and wife.

“She was completely asymptomatic and stable for a while now so were hoping she has completely recovered. She was tested again yesterday just to ensure and she tested negative for the disease. We will be discharging her from the hospital within the next few days,” said an official source from PGIMER.

Since the patient was not home quarantined and was allowed to leave the household, he remained in contact with several people between March 11 and Wednesday, when he was diagnosed with COVID-19.

Though most of the calls were from people who were deeply perturbed by the fear that they will get exposed to the disease or have already been exposed to the disease, others are people with underlying mental health issues who have not been able to seek help in the way that they regularly do.

According to an official from the Mumbai office of SRL diagnostics, the delay in commencing testing and swab collection in their labs across the country is due to the difficulties caused by the 21-day lockdown imposed by the government to enforce social distancing in the country.

The RC device will be operated by a motor which will automatically pump the AMBU bag at the required rate per minute.

Just outside the entrance of the ward, a team of young interns operate the screening room and manage the COVID-19 helpline provided to the citizens of Chandigarh.

Newsline spoke to a few patients in the city to see how they are faring, and found out that a few are on the path to recovery and feel positive about the future.

These nine ventilators are spread across the three isolation wards in Chandigarh. Panchkula has none of its own, it has managed to procure as many as 57 from its private sector.

The police officials said that most of the FIRs were registered against the unidentified persons, however, they had recorded the vehicle numbers and said that the accused will be identified soon.

Four residents of Dhanas were taken to Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) from the dispensary in the EWS Colony on Saturday as it was suspected that they may be suffering from coronavirus.

PGIMER director Jagat Ram claims that they have enough beds to ensure that the hospital is prepared for more suspected and positive cases of COVID-19.

Four of these suspected cases are the first COVID-19 patient’s mother, father, brother and cook, while the family’s gardener has also been tested and quarantined at Zirakpur. All the test results are awaited.

Covid-19 in Chandigarh: A daily wage labourer from Dhanas claims he and a few of his colleagues have had no work for the past 10-15 days and have been anxiously passing the days trying to look for work.