Gurugram: 1,000 new cases over Diwali weekend; count drops as testing low due to festival

Gururgam: The district recorded over 1,000 new cases of the coronavirus (Covid-19) disease over the Diwali weekend, with the daily tally standing at 504 new infections

Gururgam: The district recorded over 1,000 new cases of the coronavirus (Covid-19) disease over the Diwali weekend, with the daily tally standing at 504 new infections on Saturday, and 515 new cases on Sunday. While these numbers are lower than the 800-odd cases being reported daily last week, the health department’s data also shows a significant dip in testing over the past two days.

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Gurugram tested only about 2,500 samples per day (down from about 4,000 samples) over Saturday and Sunday, with the daily test-positivity rate (TPR) touching 20%, the highest in at least two weeks.

While the chief medical officer, Gururgam, could not be contacted on Sunday, a medical officer in the health department, seeking anonymity, said, “The numbers have fallen largely because of the unavailability of staff during Diwali festivities, but the shortfall will be made up in the following week.”

From the tally at 34,742 a week ago, the tally of Covid-19 cases in Gurugram is now a stone’s throw from the 40,000 mark, standing at 39,387 reported cases. The past week saw 4,645 new coronavirus cases, up from 4,215 new cases the week prior. This was the highest weekly aggregate in at least seven weeks.

Alongside the continuing rise in new daily cases, the district’s total tally of active cases is also on the rise. From 5,183 active coronavirus patients a week ago, the number exceeded the 6,000 mark for the first time on Saturday, with the tally at 6,143 active patients. However, the number dipped on Sunday to 5,990 active cases. Of these, 405 are presently hospitalised (up from 309 a week ago), while 5,575 patients are under home isolation (up from 4,865 patients a week ago). Another 10 patients (up from nine a week ago) are under observation at district Covid-care centres.

The daily growth rate of cases also dipped over the weekend, touching 1.3% on Sunday (down from 2.8% on November 8). However, experts cautioned that this is due to testing, and does not indicate that the spread of Covid has slowed down among the community.

“Testing numbers must continue to increase over time as the virus spreads. If you reduce testing by such a large margin, as Gurugram has done over the weekend, then naturally your growth rate -- or the number of new daily cases -- will also reduce. This doesn’t mean that the spread of the virus has slowed,” said Dr Rajesh Kumar, epidemiologist and former professor of community medicine at PGIMER, Chandigarh.