Haryana registered an increase of 881 coronavirus infections last week (March 8-14) in comparison to the week before.
The continuous increase in the number of cases has been on for the last five weeks even as the sample positivity rate has declined.
Health department officials said that 2,617 infections were reported last week (March 8-14) as compared to 1,736 the week before (March 1-7).
However, the sample positivity rate stayed put at 4.7%, officials said. The recovery rate was 97.8% and the mortality rate was 1.1%.
Mega vaccine drive
The state government, however, seems to be going full steam as far as vaccination is concerned.
On Monday, vaccinators in state inoculated above 1.58 lakh individuals under a mega vaccination drive across state. The vaccination coverage numbers thus crossed 6.72 lakh.
Additional chief secretary (ACS), health, Rajeev Arora said that structural planning and proactive initiatives ensuring wide mobilisation of the people resulted in such an overwhelming response to this special vaccination drive.
“We have decided to hold a mega vaccination day every Monday,” Arora said.
The ACS said that most of the beneficiaries who were administered vaccine on Monday were above 60 and persons between 45 to 60 years with co-morbidities. The department ensured that the vaccination centres are in close proximity to people’s residences even in rural areas and they do not have to travel for which the number of vaccination centres has also been enhanced, he said.
{{/usCountry}}The ACS said that most of the beneficiaries who were administered vaccine on Monday were above 60 and persons between 45 to 60 years with co-morbidities. The department ensured that the vaccination centres are in close proximity to people’s residences even in rural areas and they do not have to travel for which the number of vaccination centres has also been enhanced, he said.
{{/usCountry}}Sampling continues to be lakh plus
Arora said the health department tested about one lakh persons last week. The health department had tested about 1.27 lakh persons the week before (March 1-7) and about 1.15 lakh persons between Feb 22-28.
A large majority, about 99%, of the sampling is being done using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) kits, the gold standard test for detecting Covid-19, he said.
Data showed that only three districts - Faridabad (8.5%), Gurugram and Rewari (6.8% each) have a critical positivity rate of more than 6%.
There are 16 districts in state which have a positivity rate in the range of 2.5-5.5%, thereby meaning it is lower than the critical positivity rate of more than 6% but higher than the desirable positivity rate of less than 2 %.
Three districts - Nuh (0%), Charkhi Dadri (1.2%) and Jhajjar (1.8%) continue to have a desirable positivity rate of less than 2% for last several weeks.