Haryana records dip in daily Covid +ve rate for over a month, testing continues to go up

September proved one of the worst months for Haryana in terms of new cases of coronavirus infections and deaths due to Covid-19.

From hitting 13.4 per cent on September 8 to 9.8 per cent on September 25 and 4.4 per cent on October 11, Haryana has consistently seen a downward trend in terms of daily Covid positive percentage across the state.

Significantly, the average number of testing per day in October has been marginally more than in September. The overall monthly average testing had been increasing in Haryana since April. From 30 tests in March to 880 in April, 2,930 in May, 4,980 in June, 11,238 in July, 17,339 in August and 26,890 in September, it went up to 26,159 till October 11.

September proved one of the worst months for Haryana in terms of new cases of coronavirus infections and deaths due to Covid-19. October so far is showing considerable signs of slowdown. While the first 11 days of September added 21,906 new cases (25,824 tests conducted during September 1-11) of coronavirus infections, in October’s first 11 days, 12,243 people have tested positive (26,089 tests conducted during October 1-11).

According to the day-wise data compiled by Haryana’s health department under Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme, out of the 17,054 tests conducted, 2,286 had tested positive (13.4 per cent positive rate) on September 8. On October 6, the highest (38,939) tests were conducted in a single day out of which 1,206 tested positive (3.1 per cent). On October 11, although 23,994 tests were conducted, out of which 1,065 patients tested positive.

The data has been showing significant downward trend in terms of daily Covid positive rate since October 1. While on October 1, the Covid positive rate was 4.8 per cent (1,313 tested positive out of 27,093 samples), it was 5.6 per cent on October 2 (1,476 positive out of 26,510 tests), 4.6 per cent on October 3 (1,188 positive out of 25,876), 5.8 per cent on October 4 (1,302 positive out of 22,315), 5.4 per cent on October 5 (1,031 positive out of 19,003), 3.1 per cent on October 6 (1,206 positive out of 38,939 tests), 5.3 per cent on October 7 (1,283 positive out of 24,237 tests), 4.8 per cent on October 8 (1,284 positive out of 26,580 tests), 4.7 per cent on October 9 (1,250 positive out of 26,431 tests), 4.2 per cent on October 10 (1,158 positive out of 27,639 tests) and 4.4 per cent on October 11 (1,065 positive out of 23,994 tests).

The increasing or decreasing daily testing keeps varying from district to district and day to day depending upon the inflow of symptomatic and asymptomatic patients, health department’s campaigns in containment zones and upon the urgency or requirement of a particular district.

Confirming the slowdown of coronavirus infections in Haryana, Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Rajeev Arora said, “Well, empirically we have seen the stabilisation and then decrease after a peak. However, we have to be very cautious in view of the approaching winter season with smog and festival season, and ensure that people don’t let their guard off and continue observing the discipline of wearing masks, distancing and hand hygiene besides avoiding social gatherings. We would be prepared to deal with the second surge.”

Out of the total 1,579 Covid-19 deaths across Haryana till October 11, Faridabad has seen the maximum number (231), followed by Gurgaon (184), Karnal (111), Ambala (104) and Panchkula (101). Charkhi Dadri and Mahendragarh are the two districts of Haryana that have seen the least number of Covid-19 fatalities to date — four and seven, respectively. Of these 1,579 deaths, 1,394 patients had various co-morbidities while 185 didn’t have any.

The recovery rate in Haryana as of October 11 reached 91.45 per cent. Over the last 14 days the number of recoveries has been exceeding the number of new infections while the testing per million population has been increasing. Haryana was conducting 56,473 tests per million population on September 11, which increased to 87,097 tests per million population on October 11.

On October 11, the number of active Covid patients in the state was 10,573, including Gurgaon (2,393), Faridabad (909) and Hisar (968) — the only three districts having more than 700 active cases.

However, the state’s health department has told people to keep taking precautions, especially in view of the upcoming festive season. The state government will also be launching a full-fledged awareness campaign on such precautions in the coming days. “There is going to be a full information, education and communication – IEC – campaign for appropriate Covid behaviour that would involve all the departments of state government. The Covid pledge taken by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and administered to all the government employees across the departments today was part of this campaign,” Arora said.

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