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Gurugram reports highest single-day spike; tally close to 30,000 mark
Gurugram: The district on Saturday reported 498 new Covid -19 cases, the highest single-day spike so far. The surge raised total count of persons infected with Sars-CoV-2
Gurugram: The district on Saturday reported 498 new Covid -19 cases, the highest single-day spike so far. The surge raised total count of persons infected with Sars-CoV-2 virus in Gurugram to nearly 30,000, according to the district health bulletin.
District health officials attributed the uptick in Covid-19 cases to the delay in updating the positive cases on the official portal by some private labs. Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer (CMO), said that notices have been served to these labs.
With the uptick in new infections, the number of active cases has also surged to 3,522, the highest so far. On Saturday, two deaths were also reported, taking the Covid-19 toll to 212 in the district. The last time when the district had reported the highest single-day spike (421 new cases) was September 16.
According to Yadav, action is being taken against the private labs that are showing delay in updating positive cases. “A few private labs are not timely uploading test results of Covid-19 patients on the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) portal. We have served notices to three such labs which are collecting samples from hospitals as well as from homes,” said the CMO.
He said that labs have been given two days to submit their response. “Sudden addition of numbers from last week disrupts the entire functioning. It drastically impacts the contact tracing and treating of patients. Overall, it impacts the positivity rate as infection spreads,” said Yadav.
Notices have been served to Max Lab ( a unit of Max Hospital), Metropolis Healthcare Limited and MolQ Laboratory.
“It was a one-time delay where a few reports were uploaded with a time lag of 24 hours. This is since a few of our data entry operators unfortunately fell ill to Covid-19 recently. The same has been shared as a written reply and conveyed to the authorities concerned,” said Max Lab in its official statement.
A representative of the MolQ Laboratory said, “We are not aware of any notice issued by the health department. Once received, we will respond accordingly.”
However, Metropolis Healthcare could not be contacted for comment despite several attempts.
Since October 21, there has been a resurgence of daily infection, with the district reporting more than 300 positive cases every day. It reached a high of around 400 cases on a few days after October 22 onwards. For the past 10 days, the positivity rate of Gurugram is retained at around 12%, higher than positivity rate recorded in August and September.
The health department data shows that there has been almost 30% increase in cases in the past 10 days (October 22-31) compared to the previous 10-day period from October 12 to 21.
Experts said that cases will continue to rise due to callous approach of people in adhering to mask discipline and social distancing. Dr Rajesh Kumar, former head of community medicine and public health, PGIMER-Chandigarh, said, “Unlocking has led to mixing of population. Covid-19 will continue to increase in cities with high density population, and where people are not behaving responsibly.”
Covid-19 cases in Gurugram saw the first spike in May and then June. By mid-July, a steady drop in cases was noticed, with active cases reaching a count of 650 by August first week. However, after mid-August, cases saw an upward trajectory with more than 100 new cases reported in a day.
