Surge in Covid cases in Haryana continues even as positivity rate dips - Hindustan Times
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Surge in Covid cases in Haryana continues even as positivity rate dips

By, Chandigarh
Mar 01, 2021 10:47 PM IST

For a third successive week, coronavirus infections in Haryana continued to surge, recording an increase of 370 more cases last week as compared to the week before

For a third successive week, coronavirus infections in Haryana continued to surge, recording an increase of 370 more cases last week as compared to the week before.

Former medical superintendent of PGIMS, Rohtak, Dr Ashok Chauhan, getting a jab of the anti-Covid vaccine. (Manoj Dhaka/HT)
Former medical superintendent of PGIMS, Rohtak, Dr Ashok Chauhan, getting a jab of the anti-Covid vaccine. (Manoj Dhaka/HT)

As per the health department’s data, the state registered 1,054 new cases last week (Feb 22-28) as against 684 cases reported the week before (Feb 15-21). The steady increase in cases after a prolonged spell of decline which continued for 11 weeks prompted Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar to convene a review meeting of the administrative secretaries to take stock of the preparedness.

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Additional chief secretary (ACS), health, Rajeev Arora said that despite surge in infection, the current positivity rate is below 1% and the cumulative positivity rate has gone down to 4.8%.

“The health department tested over 1.15 lakh individuals last week. So, our sampling rate continues to be good. In fact, we are testing over one lakh persons even when the infection is going down,” the ACS said.

Arora said more than 1.5 lakh healthcare workers (HCW) have been given the first dose and over 71,000 have been given the second dose so far. Against 1.30 lakh registered frontline workers, 71,000 had been given the first dose.

While an all-time low of 534 cases were reported between February 1-7, the state had reported an all-time high of 17,616 cases during September 14-20 last year.

Officials said that the recovery rate is 98.4% and the mortality rate is 1.1%.

As per statistics, 15 districts in state have a positivity rate in the range of 2.5% to 5.5%, meaning it is lower than the critical positivity rate of more than 6% but higher than the desirable positivity rate of less than 2 %.

While three districts - Nuh (0.9%), Charkhi Dadri (1.2%) and Jhajjar (1.9%) have a desirable positivity rate of less than 2%, four districts - Faridabad (8.6%), Gurugram (7.1%), Rewari (7%) and Panchkula (6%) continued to have critical positivity rate of more than 6%.

Free masks to people, police start 2 week drive to enforce Covid guidelines

The Haryana Police have launched a two-week campaign on Monday to educate people and enforce wearing masks following Khattar’s directions to give five free masks to those found with uncovered face.

“Publicity campaigns, including radio jingles regarding Covid guidelines should be launched and guidelines should be followed meticulously. Physical checking of industries and enforcement of Covid precautions at public places should be done regularly,” the CM directed while reviewing a meeting regarding Covid.

He directed officers to ramp up Covid-19 management preparations coupled with aggressive surveillance, stringent containment, swift contact-tracing, focused clinical management and proactive information, education and communication activities.

Additional director general of police (law and order) Navdeep Singh Virk said in view of the spurt in Covid cases and casual attitude among people, police have started two-week campaign to make people aware of risk of infection.

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  • ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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    Hitender Rao is Senior Associate Editor covering the state of Haryana. A journalist with over two decades of experience, he writes on politics, economy, migration and legal affairs with a focus on investigative journalism.

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