For the first time since September, district sees two consecutive zero fatality days in Gurugram; less than 1,000 cases reported in the last week

In the seven days from December 14, Gurugram recorded less than 1,000 new cases of Covid-19, as against 2,099 the week earlier.

In the seven days from December 14, Gurugram recorded less than 1,000 new cases of Covid-19, as against 2,099 the week earlier.

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This is the lowest seven-day aggregate of new infections in at least four months. Gurugram has also reported no new Covid-19 related deaths over two days, a first since September. Before these two days, Gurugram’s last zero-fatality day was October 18.

Officials said the trend indicated a significant slowdown in the transmission of the Sars-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19, among the community. “We are now in a similar situation as in September. We are seeing fewer deaths, fewer cases requiring intensive care, and the positivity rate is also improving day-by-day. It’s hard to pinpoint the precise reason behind this slowdown, but it is plausible that a large number of people have already been exposed to the virus and have acquired immunity while being asymptomatic,” said Dr Jai Prakash Sharma, district surveillance officer, Gurugram, but adding that it would take a serosurvey to establish that.

As per the last serosurvey in October, nearly 26 percent of Gurugram’s urban population had developed antibodies against Covid-19 (up from 14 percent in August). In the district’s rural blocks, the seropositivity increased from 6 percent to 10 percent between August and October. “Now it may be one in every three or two people, perhaps, who have been exposed. The seropositivity would have certainly gone up, but only a proper survey can help us determine whether herd immunity is responsible for the deceleration in new cases,” Sharma said.

The district’s weekly test-positivity rate, meanwhile, dropped to 3.5 percent in the week ending December 20 (as against 7 percent the week prior), while the number of deaths also reduced, from 12 deaths to seven deaths. The district over the past week tested 27,155 new samples for Covid-19, of which 4002 tests were conducted on Sunday. Over 90 percent of all daily tests are being conducted via the gold-standard RT-PCR method, while the remaining are rapid antigen tests.

The total number of active patients in the district stands at 1512 (down from 2,250 a week ago). These comprise about 4 percent of Gurugram’s total Covid-19 caseload (55766 infections) so far, indicating a recovery rate just over 96 percent. Of the active cases, 1365 are currently under home isolation, while 143 are in hospitals. Another four active patients are under observation at district Covid care centres.