Spread of Covid-19 in Haryana ‘upward and outward’ from Gurugram and Faridabad

Officials said the outbreak has perceptibly been spreading “upwards and outwards” from southern Haryana, with Yamunanagar, Panchkula, Kurukshetra and Sirsa districts currently seeing the largest surge in reported infections.

Despite Gurugram and Faridabad both recording a steady decline in the growth in number of new Covid-19 cases, it is Haryana’s northern and western districts that have started giving health officials a new cause for concern.

As of August 14, Haryana has a total of 45,614 positive Covid-19 cases, of which 6,748 are classified as active cases. (Sant Arora/HT file photo)

Officials said the outbreak has perceptibly been spreading “upwards and outwards” from southern Haryana, with Yamunanagar, Panchkula, Kurukshetra and Sirsa districts currently seeing the largest surge in reported infections.

As per state health department data, Yamunanagar saw the highest Covid-19 growth rate over the past two weeks, with its total case load of infections increasing by 113%. Panchkula’s total burden of Covid-19 cases increased by 106% during the same time, while Kurukshetra and Panipat’s total confirmed positives grew by 98 and 90%, respectively. Between August 1 and August 14, Yamunanagar has seen 300 new cases with the number of total cases standing at 565. Panchkula has recorded 564 new cases , with 1,096 total cases. For Kurukshetra, the numbers of new cases and total cases are 415 and 838 respectively and those for Panipat are 906 and 1,915 respectively.

Meanwhile, southern districts like Gurugram, Faridabad and Nuh, once hot spots, witnessed growth rates between 11 and 26%. Gurugram, which has witnessed the most significant slowdown in new cases, has a recovery rate of 92%, which officials said is the highest in the state, and has a daily growth rate of under 1%. In comparison, emerging hots pots in northern districts are seeing daily growth rates between 6 to 8%.

As of August 14, Haryana has a total of 45,614 positive Covid-19 cases, of which 6,748 are classified as active cases. Despite having lower absolute numbers, Yamunanagar, Panchkula, Kurukshetra and Panipat together make up close to 20% of the state’s entire active caseload. The recovery rate for Haryana currently stands at 84%, while the fatality rate stands at 1.14%. The doubling rate stands at 30 days, but the four districts with the highest growth of cases (over the past two weeks) are doubling at twice the pace, between 12 to 15 days.

“We can confidently say that the outbreak has spread upwards and outwards from Gurugram and Faridabad, which are the most populated districts and also share lots of connections with Delhi. These were the first hot spots to emerge in Haryana, around May-June. In July, when the situation in the south started improving, it was adjacent districts like Rewari, Bhiwani, Jhajjar and Rohtak that witnessed surges. Now, even those districts have begun to see a slowdown in cases, but the outbreak has continued to spread and gained speed in districts that are further away from the south,” said Dr Usha Gupta, director, health services, Integrated Disease Surveillance Program (IDSP).

A senior infectious diseases expert at PGIMER Chandigarh, who is also involved in Haryana’s upcoming seroprevalence study, requesting anonymity, said, “The geographic spread of the outbreak in Haryana is natural. As the state opens up post-lockdown, and people continue to move between districts, whether for work or personal reasons, the infection will move out of areas which were once red zones, and new hot spots will emerge. Luckily, in terms of absolute numbers, these new hot spots will not be overwhelmed because the population is much less.”

Commenting on this development, Dr Jasjeet Kaur, civil surgeon, Panchkula, said, “The surge was expected owing to regular influx of people from red zones. Being the state headquarters for many department offices, Panchkula sees many regular commuters from outside.”

Kaur also pointed out that the Baddi industrial area in Himachal Pradesh, which shares a border with Panchkula, has recently emerged as a new hot spot due to the movement of migrants after state borders were opened.

Gupta and other health department officials maintained that while the outbreak has continued to spread in Haryana, there is no cause for alarm yet. “In every single district, we have vacant beds and ventilators available. If need be, we will also leverage available infrastructure in urban centres and shift critical patients from rural areas to places like Gurugram and Faridabad, where tertiary care facilities have become available after a reduction in active patients,” Gupta said.