First Covid death reported in Chandigarh this year, patient referred from Ludhiana

Chandigarh: A 40-year-old man who tested positive for Covid-19 died at the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) in Sector 32, Chandigarh, on Wednesday morning.

The patient, a resident of Firozabad in Uttar Pradesh, had been referred to Chandigarh from Ludhiana after testing positive for the virus.

Upon admission, he was placed in isolation in the hospital’s Covid ward, where two ventilators had been kept available for emergency use. This marks the first confirmed Covid-19 case in Chandigarh this year.

Hospital authorities have not yet confirmed whether the case was linked to the newly detected JN.1 variant of the coronavirus.

GMCH-32 Director Dr Ashok Atri had earlier said that all required data had been submitted and that the patient was under close observation. He had also urged the public not to panic. However, following the patient’s death, officials are now treating the case as a serious development.

The UT health department is expected to step up surveillance and implement stricter precautionary measures to curb any possible spread of the virus.