Gurugram reports first Covid-19 death this year

Gurugram reports its first Covid-19 death in over five months, despite the patient being fully vaccinated but with co-morbidities. Two cases of H3N2 influenza were also reported.

Gurugram: The city on Thursday reported the first Covid-19 death in over five months, said health department officials. Incidentally, the last time Gurugram recorded a Covid-19 death was on October 28 last year.

Noida, India- April 06, 2023: A health worker collects a swab sample for Covid-19 test at the District Hospital in Sector 30, in Noida, India, on Thursday, April 06, 2023. (Photo by Sunil Ghosh / Hindustan Times)

Health officials said that the deceased man was a 68-year-old Covid-19 patient with co-morbidities. The patient was fully vaccinated but was suffering from diabetes, hypertension and coronary heart disease, officials added.

Also, two cases of H3N2 influenza were reported on Thursday and officials said both the patients were stable and their contacts were traced.

Dr Jai Prakash, district surveillance officer, said that 179 new cases of Covid-19 were reported on Thursday along with 94 recoveries. “There are also two cases of H3N2, and 10 type-B influenza cases reported in the district so far,” he said.

Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer, Gurugram, said that people should take precautions as there is a rise in both H3N2 and Covid-19 cases. “We have increased surveillance across the district and also ramped up testing. We have collected 961 samples of RT-PCR tests in the last 24 hours and conducted 1,967 RT-PCR and Rapid Antigen tests,” he said.

The district now has 584 active cases, of which 578 patients are in home isolation, while the remaining six are recuperating in hospitals.

Till date, over 302,568 cases of Covid-19 have been reported in Gurugram since the start of the pandemic in March 2020. Of the 1,032 people who died due to Covid-19 in Gurugram so far, 706 had co-morbidities, according to official data.

In the past few days, the district has witnessed a rise in Covid-19 cases. Doctors and experts have attributed this to the laxity of following Covid-19 norms.