Chandigarh, Dec 08: Three persons have died of swine flu in city hospitals in the last 24 hours. All victims are from Punjab.
The deceased are a 45-year-old man from Jalandhar, Harbhajan Singh, a 35-year-old woman from Hoshiarpur, Anju Bala, and 35-year-old man from Baltana, Varinder Kumar.
On Monday, Harbhajan came to PGI in extremely critical condition.
He died half-an-hour after his arrival. Similarly, Bala died 20 minutes after she was admitted in PGI.
Doctors at the hospital said condition of both the patients was severe, and they died before they could be put on ventilator.
The third victim died in Oxford Hospital, Sector 19. He was put on a ventilator for the last three days.
Varinder had tested positive on December 2.
His family reportedly wanted to shift him to PGI, but doctors refused, as the “patient was already on life support system”.
Five more persons, meanwhile, have tested positive. Two victims are from Chandigarh — a 54-year-old man, who is admitted in Mukat Hospital, Sector 34, and a 32-year-old man, admitted in GMCH, Sector 32.
Also, a nine-year-old student of Carmel Convent School, Chandigarh, has tested positive. The victim, who lives in Sector 9, Panchkula, studies in Class II.
But the school decided against suspending the class, as the child was absent on Monday.
Carmel Convent had suspended classes I and II last week, which resumed on Monday.
Two Ambala residents are also among those who tested positive on Monday.
Doctors said this was the second wave of swine flu in the country, as weather conditions were conducive for the spread of the virus.
–agencies