Gurugram sees drop in weekly Covid-19 cases

Gurugram: The weekly cases of coronavirus disease in the district has dropped from 51 cases in the first week of August to 39 cases reported last week, with health officials attributing the decline to high testing rates and increased vaccination

Gurugram: The weekly cases of coronavirus disease in the district has dropped from 51 cases in the first week of August to 39 cases reported last week, with health officials attributing the decline to high testing rates and increased vaccination. Gurugram saw only six new cases on Sunday.

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According to the district health bulletin on Sunday, the active case count is 78 while the total tally touched 181, 023 with 921 deaths.

Currently, the test positivity rate – the proportion of people testing positive for the infection out of the total samples tested – is 0.1%, which is less than 5% fixed by the World Health Organisation as safe.

Data collated through the district health bulletin shows that from July 18 to 24, the weekly cases were 52. The weekly cases maintained in the same range in the subsequent weeks -- 50 from July 24-31; and 51 from August 1-7.

Subsequently, weekly cases dropped to 36 from August 8-14 and increased marginally to 39 from August 15-21.

“Despite the decline in cases, the department conducts 3,750 tests on an average every day. A 24x7 antigen testing kiosk is functional at the civil hospital in Sector 10 and the polyclinic in sector 31 to facilitate testing. Currently, Gurugram is doing maximum tests, while other districts are administering only 2,000 tests or less than that. With increased testing, we can keep a check on the doubling rate and timely isolation of patients,” said Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer.

Experts said that people should not stop wearing masks and maintaining social distancing.

Senior epidemiologist Dr Rajesh Kumar, the former head of the community medicine department and school of public health, PGIMER-Chandigarh, said, “Vaccination and decline in Covid-19 should not stop people from following preventive norms. Vaccination can only protect from the severity of the disease, hospitalisation and death. It does not prevent the transmission of the virus. Even after being vaccinated, people may contract the virus. It is important to follow Covid-19 protocols like social distancing, avoiding gatherings, ensuring proper ventilation, sanitisation and mask discipline. In a few northern states, cases have increased slightly in some pockets.”

According to Kumar, the local administration and police should issue advisory and prevent the gathering of people in market areas, considering that festival season is around the corner.