Tally may cross 200 in Chandigarh: UT adviser

UT adviser Manoj Kumar Parida, on Wednesday, in a tweet, predicted that the city’s Covid tally may cross the 200 mark. Later, talking to Hindustan Times, Parida clarified that it was a rough estimate.

Parida tweeted, “Our assessment says we may cross 200.” When asked about the time frame in which the case may go up to 200, Parida said it cannot be estimated as of now, and the number may increase or decrease.

In the last five days, the city has seen a spike of 40 new cases taking the total number to 68.

The administration’s main concern is that most cases are coming from congested and densely populated areas including Sector 30 and Bapu Dham. 23 cases have been reported in Bapu Dham alone in the last five days, as social distancing has been flouted in such areas. Significantly, the first man to report positive in the colony had thrown a party and police has booked him for violating the curfew restrictions.

In the daily review meeting, Punjab governor and UT administrator VPS Badnore expressed serious concern about the continuously rising corona cases in the city. Badnore has asked for intensive screening and testing to be done in affected pockets such as Bapu Dham Colony, Sector 30-B and Kachi Colony. He said all resources and manpower should be concentrated on this while maintaining a strict vigil.

Badnore also directed director general of police Sanjay Beniwal to regularly patrol all the areas and take stringent action against those found violating norms.

On Wednesday, the administration installed 14 CCTV cameras in Bapu Dham Colony and 26 CCTV cameras in Sector 30-B to monitor violation of social distancing.

Parida said affected zones in Bapu Dham Colony will be expanded to include 2,500 more people to contain corona more effectively. Badnore stated that although the Punjab Government has extended the curfew by two weeks Chandigarh will take a decision on May 3, only after consulting all stakeholders and keeping in view guidelines of Government of India on this subject.

Enthused city residents are flooding the twitter handle of UT adviser Manoj Kumar Parida with requests for delivery of cakes to their relatives or friends’ homes on their birthdays. This comes a day after a video went viral showing Panchkula police delivering a cake to a senior citizen on his birthday.

Parida tweeted, “They want me to send police with cakes to their friends for birthdays” and “I plan to block my direct message facility (on Twitter) since I am getting too many such requests.”