Covid-19 case count crosses 100, officials call for adherence to safety norms

The district continued to witness a surge in Covid-19 cases, with 104 new infections being confirmed on Thursday

The district continued to witness a surge in Covid-19 cases, with 104 new infections being confirmed on Thursday. With Gurugram being one of the eight worst-affected districts of Haryana reporting an increased prevalence of infection in recent weeks, chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar and health minister Anil Vij are likely to hold a meeting with the district administration on Friday to curb the transmission.

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“The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) and police department have been directed to increase challans of people found violating mask discipline. Containment zones have also been increased. The health department has also been directed to raise the vaccination coverage,” said Yash Garg, deputy commissioner.

Health officials said the transmission has become rampant from March 9, when the daily infection climbed to 75 from 36 cases reported on March 1. Data from the district health bulletin shows that on average, 84 new cases have been confirmed per day over the last week. In the previous week, the daily average cases stood at 62. Currently, the active case count has reached 659, while the total tally stands at 60,201.

The new infection count crossed 100 almost after three months. The last time the number of cases was higher was on December 23, 2020, when at least 110 cases were confirmed. Noticing the upward trend after months, the district health department increased its testing to 4,321, with the test positivity rate, positives out of the total samples tested, hovering around 2.1%.

Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer, said, “Despite ongoing vaccination, people should follow all Covid-19 norms, basic respiratory hygiene and mask discipline. At a time restrictions are no longer imposed, people should be cautious. We have already increased testing following the basic rule of tracing and isolating close contacts of a confirmed case within 72 hours.”

As reported by HT, districts of Yamunanagar, Karnal, Faridabad, Panchkula, Kaithal, Kurukshetra, Ambala and Gurugram have been reporting a spike in cases across Haryana. States noticing a spike in cases were directed to curb the Covid-19 wave during a meeting held with the Prime Minister on Wednesday.