Top Headlines of the Day

1. Positivity rate rises to 10% post-Diwali

Three days after Diwali, the city today recorded 136 Covid cases, the maximum number of cases recorded in November so far. While the positivity rate stands at 10 percent, the trend is suggestive of the very fact that the second surge of Covid has gripped the city after September.

The last week of October recorded 438 cases with an average of daily cases ranging from 60 to 70. At the onset of November, the Covid cases in Chandigarh started witnessing about a 50 percent rise compared to cases reported in the last week of October.

Positivity rate
Last week of Oct: 6% (438 cases)
Nov first week: 8.5% (658 cases)
Nov second week: 10% (670 cases)

The first week of November recorded 658 cases followed by 670 cases in the second week. The positivity rate also increased from 6 percent in the last week of October to 10 percent this week.

2. Only those fasting for Chhat Puja to be allowed in Chandigarh’s Sector-42 lake: Purvanchal associations

With Chhath Puja slated to start in the city from November 19, some of the Purvanchal associations held a meeting at the Sector-42 lake on Tuesday to discuss how to organize the festival. The meeting was chaired by municipal corporation (MC) councilor Anil Kumar Dubey.

Dubey, who is also the chairman of the Purvanchal Sabha, said, “Only people who will be fasting as per the traditions of the festival will be allowed to come to the Sector-42 lake. Those coming from various villages of Chandigarh will be encouraged to celebrate the festival at their villages.”

Dubey added that there will be no stage performances this year and only tea will be served to the devotees: “People would earlier visit just to see the celebrations. Now, people will be allowed to enter into the water, but they won’t be allowed to bathe in it.”

Masks will be distributed to all and sanitizers will be installed for them to use. The thermal screening will be done at the entry point of the lake.

3. No Chhath Puja in Panchkula

The district administration today denied permission to the registration committee for celebrating the upcoming Chhath Puja on the banks of the Kaushalya and Ghaggar rivers.

Deputy Commissioner Mukesh Kumar Ahuja said the permission was denied due to Covid as 20-25,000 people were expected to visit the river banks. The DC told the Municipal Commissioner to put up hoardings.

4. Refund entire fee amount to parent: Panel to school

No fee amount, including the one paid in advance, can be illegally held back by a school for the period for which no teaching/service is being availed of by a student, stated the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Chandigarh, while directing a private school in Sector 44 to refund the entire fee of a student, who moved to another school of her choice.

No fee amount, including the one paid in advance, can be illegally held back by a school for the period for which no teaching/service is being availed of by a student, stated the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Chandigarh, while directing a private school in Sector 44 to refund the entire fee of a student, who moved to another school of her choice.

5. Chandigarh PGIMER to get India’s first dedicated animal house laboratory with the advanced research facility

The department of radiodiagnosis and imaging at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research is installing the country’s first digital subtraction angiography (DSA) facility dedicated to basic research in animals.

Interventional radiologists use this machine for performing angiography of various organs of the body like the brain, liver, kidneys, etc. The various treatments include opening up of blocked vessels, plugging of leaking vessels, and delivering super-selectively chemotherapy or radiation to the tumor in the affected organ.

Before coming into the market for human use, the drugs and allied equipment have to undergo strict checks initially on animals, followed by human trials in various phases.

Animal DSA installations need a sophisticated setup requiring, in addition to the DSA equipment, the entire infrastructure to house appropriate animals. Expert personnel and conditions are required to take suitable care of the animals and provide them fair living conditions in an ethical humane setup.

Subsequent administration of experimental drugs is undertaken or deployment of new devices is carried out like stents, coils, to understand the changes these lead to in the animals. Sometimes, for evaluating the results, angiographies have to be repeated after a certain interval. The results achieved aid to develop specific therapies for various vascular and parenchymal disorders in human beings. The animals who will be housed at PGIMER include sheep, rabbits, guinea pigs, mice, rats, and hamsters.

6. Chicken, egg prices up as supply runs short in Chandigarh

Chicken and egg prices are up in the city with the advent of the festive season and the winter even as supplies being affected after the lockdown due to Covid-19.

Broilers, which were priced at Rs 180 to Rs 190 per kg, are now selling for Rs 240 per kg; and the cost of an egg has gone up from Rs 5 to Rs 7 in the past few weeks.

Interestingly, fish and mutton prices are not fluctuating much. “Fish and mutton are associated with the wedding season that normally picks up around this time. However, demand is low this year. More people prefer chicken as it can be cooked easily at home,” Tejinder Singh Chawla, proprietor of the Sector 46 Chawla’s Chicken outlet explained.

Singhara fish is selling for Rs 650 per kg and mutton for Rs 600 per kg.

7. Chandigarh employees’ hopes to own house dashed again

Even after a decade, there is no respite for 3,930 UT employees who were selected by lot for the UT’s employees’ self-finance housing scheme. Following the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the UT Administration held a meeting with a delegation of the employees who are to get flats under the scheme, but it again disappointed the latter for they were offered prices with a very marginal reduction.

When the scheme was announced in 2008, the rate of a one-room flat (EWS category) was Rs5.76 lakh, but it was today offered for a whopping Rs48 lakh-Rs54 lakh, that too in an 11-story building. Three BHK, which was priced at Rs34.70 lakh, was today offered for a staggering Rs1.51crore-Rs1.69 crore.

“It is their mistake that they did not build flats under the 2008 scheme and inordinately delayed the matter without any reason. Thus, we want the same 2008 rates as employees cannot afford the increased cost of the flats. The authorities should treat it as a special case, not as a general housing scheme. They can give flats on throwaway prices eyeing a particular vote bank, but are doing injustice with their own employees,” said a group of employees.

8. 136 new cases in Chandigarh, two more die

The city on Tuesday recorded 136 new cases of Covid-19 and two deaths. A 61-year-old man from Dadu Majra, who was suffering from acute respiratory disease, died at the PGI and a 77-year-old man from Sector 44, who was suffering from diabetes, hypertension, and chronic heart disease, breathed his last at Ace Heart Hospital, Mohali

9. 4 deaths, 84 fresh infections in Mohali

Four fatalities due to Covid were reported from the district while 84 fresh cases surfaced till Tuesday evening. The district tally stands at 13,762 and the toll 259. So far, 12,444 patients have recovered from the disease. There are 1,059 active cases in the district

10. 83 test positive in Panchkula, no fatality

As many as 83 new cases of Covid surfaced in the Panchkula district during the past 24 hours. No fresh fatality was reported till Tuesday. The district has reported 7,461 recoveries so far. There are 442 active cases. The virus has claimed 119 lives.