E-Paper
Yet another peak in daily Covid infections
The district on Sunday reported 964 new cases of coronavirus disease (Covid-19), marking the highest single-day spike in cases since the outbreak began in March.
The district on Sunday reported 964 new cases of coronavirus disease (Covid-19), marking the highest single-day spike in cases since the outbreak began in March. The record high comes just two days after the district recorded 704 new cases on November 6, which was then the highest spike reported in Gurugram.
From 30,527 reported infections a week ago, the total tally of Covid-19 cases in Gurugram is now inching towards the 35,000 mark, with 34,742 infections reported at present.
Over the last week, 4,215 new infections were reported, which was significantly higher than the 2,566 infections reported the week prior. Also, this is the highest weekly aggregate in over at least the past six weeks.
Health department data also shows that the test positivity rate (TPR) over the past week has consistently been trending upward, from 10.7% on October 26 to 21% on November 1, and to 24% on November 8. There has also been an increase, over the past week, in the actual number of daily tests, with the district having tested 4,008 people on Sunday.
Official and experts both expressed caution over the steady increase in positivity rate. “There is definitely some cause for concern, because when the TPR goes up consistently, it indicates that the transmission of the virus among the general population has been accelerating. This was to be expected, since we are moving into the winter season, and lower temperatures enable quicker transmission of infectious respiratory diseases. And since we are also heading into the festive season, public movement has also increased,” said Dr Rajesh Kumar, epidemiologist and former head of the department of community medicine at PGIMER, Chandigarh.
Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer, Gurugram, said, “Falling temperatures, increasing social engagements and a laxity in social distancing are responsible for the spike in new cases. People are not complying with basic hand and mask hygiene guidelines. We are also continuing to see this trend of whole families testing positive, which we started observing in September, because multiple members of a single household are venturing out freely. I strongly advise that people should curb going outdoors unless absolutely necessary.”
The district at present has 5,183 active cases of Covid-19, up from 3,707 cases a week ago. This is also the highest number of active cases since the beginning of the outbreak. Of these, 309 are presently hospitalised (up from 214 a week ago), while 4,865 patients are under home isolation (up from 3,486 patients a week ago). Another nine patients (up from seven a week ago) are under observation at district Covid care centres.
The daily growth rate of cases, from being a little over 1% in early October, currently stands at 2.8% (from about 1.7% a week ago). The growth rate has also been trending upward for the past two weeks, health department data shows. This has resulted in a shrinking of the doubling rate of cases, which stands at 55 days (as opposed to 65 days a week ago).
