Active cases down by over 50% since Dec 1

The count of Covid-19 active cases, which was over 6,000 at the start of the month, has reduced to less than half — at 2,715 on Thursday — over the last 10 days,

The count of Covid-19 active cases, which was over 6,000 at the start of the month, has reduced to less than half — at 2,715 on Thursday — over the last 10 days, according to the district health bulletin. Senior health officials cite a constant decline in the number of new cases and high recovery rates as factors for the reduction.

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As many as 398 new infections were reported on Thursday as 390 recovered. The total tally has now reached 53,758 with the toll at 325.

The significant drop in active cases started from December 1, when the count was 6,092. It reduced to 5,015 on December 3 and further to 3,386 and 2,709 on December 6 and 9, respectively. It is almost after 47 days of constant spike that the number has come down, as Gurugram last reported around 2,771 active cases on October 24. In over a month, the number had reached the maximum of 6,463, on November 27.

“Active cases are impacted by two parameters — new cases recorded every day and recovered cases — which work simultaneously. When new infections decline and the number of recovered patients increase, the overall active case count comes down,” said Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer.

Yadav said, “The department has conducted extensive testing across the district in the last one month to identify asymptomatic positive cases and timely isolating them. This helped in breaking the chain of transmission, the impact of which can now be seen in the gradual decline in daily infections. We are continuing with 5,000 tests a day, whereby, on an average, 416 new cases have been recorded every day since the beginning of December.”

From December 1, the district has been recording on an average 416 new cases every day, with 768 recoveries per day. In November, more than 165,000 tests were administered, when 600-700 new infections were confirmed every day.

In terms of recovery rate — the ratio of recovered cases to the confirmed cases — there has been an increase too. Until November 12, the recovery rate was almost 83%, which touched 94% on Thursday. Almost 3,000 patients have recovered in the last week alone.

“Cases pile up when new cases arise. But after the treatment of 10 to 14 days, the count of recovered patients increases. Cases which were reported in November are now getting recovered,” said Yadav.

The count of active cases also accounts for the caseload also declined to nearly 4% on Thursday, after showing a spike of over 13% until November-end. From 14% in the first week of November, it reached almost 16% in mid- November), and declined to almost 13% by the month-end. It was at 12% on December 1.

Based on the Covid-19 waves noticed in the past since the outbreak of the pandemic, Yadav said that infection has been coming in phases, with chances of infection set to rise again with a further dip in temperatures.