Covid-19 tally in Gurugram crosses 40,000 mark

The total tally of Covid-19 infections crossed the 40,000-mark on Tuesday, with 588 new infections being reported in the last 24 hours. With Covid-19 spreading at

The total tally of Covid-19 infections crossed the 40,000-mark on Tuesday, with 588 new infections being reported in the last 24 hours. With Covid-19 spreading at an unprecedented rate since the first week of November, amid the festive season and the increasing air pollution, the Covid-19 tally on Tuesday reached 40,521. Of these, 5,445 are currently active, while 34,829 patients have recovered from the infection.

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On Tuesday, as per the district health bulletin, a record number of 889 people recovered from the infection, bringing down the overall active cases. However, the test positivity rate(TPR) – total number of positives out of the samples collected – remains high at 18%. This is higher than the TPR of the previous week, when it stood at 15% and almost similar to that of July, when the infection was at its peak.

In the first week of November, the state health department made a projection based on the real and the worst case scenarios with cases likely to go as high as 43,000 by the end of the month. Experts, however, had warned that considering the rising positivity rate, tally would go well beyond the projected figures.

In November, more than 10,000 new infections have been reported so far due to the increasing positivity rate. It is the highest rate at which new cases have been confirmed till now since the outbreak of the pandemic. It took more than a month-and-a-half for the numbers to reach 20,000 in September. It then took a month to reach 30,000 by the end of October.

To tackle the upsurge, in the last 10 days, daily testing has been increased to 4,000, except on the Diwali weekend when it came down to about 2,500. The rise in positivity rate comes at a time when the district health department is conducting the maximum number of Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) tests, considered to the gold standard of front-line testing. RT-PCR is significantly better than rapid antigen test in detecting cases and producing accurate results. At least 4,004 tests, including 3,647 RT-PCR tests ( the highest since September) and 357 rapid antigen test, were administered on Tuesday.

Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer, said, “Testing will be ramped up as new clusters have been identified where testing camps will be held. This week, the department will receive more rapid antigen kits to conduct testing in market areas with high footfall. Time and again, teams are administering tests in widely affected areas, such as Tigra, Wazirabad, Chanderlok and areas under the 19 urban primary health centres of the district. It is likely that with increased targeted testing, positivity rate will come down.”

With increased testing, new infections also increased to 726 on an average every day, compared to 701 in the previous week. Worried about the consistent upward spike in cases, Niti Aayog earlier this week directed Delhi-NCR cities to increase testing, and modify strategies on surveillance of home-isolated patients and quarantine of high-risk contacts. Since, Delhi-NCR is treated as one unit to tackle Covid-19 spike, Gurugram has followed the footsteps of Delhi in reserving 75% ICU beds and 50% general beds across 42 private and public hospitals of the city on Monday.

Officials said the decision was taken as the number of hospitalisation has gone up in the last few days. Hospitalisation has consistently increased from 191 on November 2 to 293 on November 7 and further to 408 on November 13. On Monday, it reached 417 and 427 on Tuesday. Out of the 2,114 beds earmarked for the treatment of Covid-19 in hospitals across the city, 963 beds are currently occupied. However, it is the proportional uptick in ICU patients that has the government worried. On Tuesday, nearly 59% of 159 ventilators and 65% of 312 ICU beds were occupied. The Covid-19 toll also reached 247, with three new deaths.

Even at the state level, the tally has reached 2,04,477, of which 19,153 are active. At least 2,063 people across the state have succumbed to the illness.