Chandigarh, Dec 20 (IANS) Following a spurt in swine flu cases this month, the Chandigarh health authorities have declared the contagion as ‘community spread’, officials here said Sunday.
Consequently, physicians would not need to wait for results of swab tests for swine flu to prescribe the tamiflu drug to patients, the technical committee of the health department said. The drug can now be prescribed just on the basis of symptoms.

These decisions were taken in a meeting Saturday convened by Health-cum-Home Secretary Ram Niwas with representatives of the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), government hospitals and some private hospitals of the region to review the situation.

“Advent of winters has seen a sudden surge in the number of cases and in the toll due to this deadly virus. We have evaluated the whole situation and discussed our further strategy to curb this infection,” Niwas said Sunday.

Over 260 people have so far tested positive for swine flu in Chandigarh hospitals — the union territory has reported over 100 positive cases and more than 20 deaths due to the virus in December alone.

Niwas said: “As per government of India guidelines, the present situation comes under community spread category. Seeing the situation, we have decided to increase the number of doctors who will be authorized to prescribe tamiflu.”

Two more people died due to swine flu at PGIMER in Chandigarh late Saturday evening, raising the toll in this city’s hospitals to 34. Out of these, 16 belong to Punjab, 10 were from Haryana, 5 from Chandigarh and 3 from Himachal Pradesh.

H1N1 testing facility is available in the virology department at PGIMER, which is catering to the needs of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir besides the union territory.