Gurugram’s Covid-19 count crosses 6,000-mark; death toll at 101

The number of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases in the city breached the 6,000-mark on Monday after 109 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours, according

The number of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases in the city breached the 6,000-mark on Monday after 109 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours, according to the district health bulletin.

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The city’s total number of Covid-19 cases stands at 6,058, out of which 947 are active ones, while 5,010 have recovered till now. The city added 5,000 new cases in June alone when the total positivity rate was more than 50%. At present, the positivity rate is around 4.5%.

Gurugram has the highest number of cases in Haryana, followed by Faridabad and Sonepat. At least 17,504 cases have been reported in the state, out of which 3,893 are active, while 13,611 patients have recovered. Gurugram’s overall burden as a percentage of the total number of cases in state is 24.3%.

The city recorded its first case of Covid-19 on March 15, when a 26-year-old woman, a resident of Sector 9 had tested positive for the infection after returning from Malaysia and Indonesia. Since then, it took two-and-a-half months to record the first 1,000 cases on May 30 and another 30 days for 5,000 cases. Overall, it has taken the city 107 days since the first case to touch the 6,000-mark.

On Monday, the district also recorded one death due to Covid-19. The total toll due to the Covid-19 infection in the city reached the 101-mark on Monday. This takes Gurugram’s present fatality rate to 1.66% as compared to 0.4% in May.

The case fatality rate started surging from June onwards when over six to nine deaths were being reported daily. More than 50% of the deaths were reported between June 11-29. Till now, 64 patients have died due to co-morbid conditions, such as hypertension, tuberculosis, diabetes, cancer, among other underlining health issues, while another 37 have died without any co-morbidities. To ascertain the cause of death in such cases, senior doctors of PGIMS Rohtak, a Covid-19 designated tertiary care hospital of the state, are coordinating with All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Delhi.

Gurugram, however, is far behind the predictions earlier made by the district administration regarding spike in the number of cases. Considering parameters, such as doubling rate and test positivity rate, it was predicted that 35,000 cases would be reported by June-end. But later experts suggested the numbers might be around 6,000-7,000. To match the swelling number of cases, it was predicted that the city would need 4,200- 5,250 beds for Covid-19 patients requiring tertiary care.

Presently, the treatment for Covid-19 is being provided in 37 private hospitals and three government hospitals across the city. The city has earmarked 1,486 beds for Covid-19 patients, 192 Intensive Care Unit(ICU) beds and 92 ventilators in both government and private hospitals. Currently, 386 patients are admitted in city hospitals, out of which 197 patients are from Gurugram, while 188 patients are from other cities of the country, including 82 from Delhi.

The administration has also reserved more than 1,000 beds in several hotels of the city for self-paid and government-paid isolation facilities for the treatment of asymptomatic patients.

Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer (CMO), said, “Our focus currently is on testing, tracing and treating the patients. Today, the total number of active cases in Gurugram is below 1,000. There is also an improvement in the recovery rate. Our target is to test more than 2,000 people every day to break the chain of transmission in the large outbreak regions.”

As per official estimates, 46,187 tests have been conducted in the city so far, out of which more than 6,000 have tested positive.

“The average number of daily positive cases in the city is down by 22% from 152 in June to 118 in July, while daily testing has more than tripled mainly due to the introduction of rapid antigen testing. As a result, positivity rate has dropped sharply from 23.9% in June to 5.5% in the first week of July. For the next two weeks, Gurugram should sustain more than 2,000 daily tests with more focus on RT-PCR testing to achieve the 5% positivity rate as recommended by the World Health Organization(WHO),” said Dheeraj Singh, a city-based data scientist tracking Covid-19 cases in Gurugram.