Gurugram breaches 4,000-mark; conducts highest number of tests in a single day

With 145 new cases being reported in the district on Friday, Gurugram’s total count of confirmed Covid-19 cases reached 4,136. The district also reported three more

With 145 new cases being reported in the district on Friday, Gurugram’s total count of confirmed Covid-19 cases reached 4,136. The district also reported three more deaths, taking the toll to 55. The total number of patients afflicted by Covid-19 in the state stands at 9,743.

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The district conducted 790 new tests on Friday, the highest conducted in a single day so far, yielding a test-positivity rate of 18% — the same as on Thursday.

The dip in the district’s test-positivity rate, officials said, is a result of increased testing, and bodes well for the quality of surveillance. “The TPR in early June started going to levels exceeding 50%, which indicated the need to conduct more tests.With our new lab in Gurugram, we have been able to ramp up the numbers and cast a wider net. As such, fewer samples are turning positive since Thursday,” said Virender Yadav, chief medical officer (CMO), Gurugram.

The average TPR for June, however, still stands at 43%, up from nine percent in May. Experts said that the increase in testing, as seen over the past two days, would need to be scaled up even further. “While increasing tests is always a hopeful sign, district health data shows that in the past, testing numbers were reduced when pooled testing was discontinued. At the very least, this increase needs to be sustained,” said Dheeraj Singh, a city-based data scientist tracking state and district level trends in Covid-19 data.

A total of 122 patients in the district were also discharged after treatment on Friday, taking Gurugram’s recovery rate to 55.4%, up from 54% on Thursday. A total of 1,788 patients are currently being treated at various hospitals in Gurugram. At least, 10 patients in the district, of a total of 19 in the state, are currently on ventilator support, according to state health bulletin data.