Seven months on, Haryana’s three-tier strategy shows results

CHANDIGARH: Registering just 14 cases of Covid-19 on March 14, Haryana reached 1,45,507 on October 14, with an average of around 686 cases per day. The death toll in the state due to the deadly virus has reached more than 1,600 with an average of around eight deaths every day in the past seven months.
An analysis of last seven-month data taken from medical bulletins released by the state health department revealed that out of the around 1.45 lakh Covid cases in the state, around 45,000 cases of infection were registered in 152 days, from March 14 to August 14, and the remaining one lakh were recorded in just 60 days’ time till October 14. Out of the 1,614 deaths in the state from March 14 to October 14, 613 were registered till August 24 (162 days) and the remaining around 1,000 deaths took place in just 50 days.

At one point, the state was among the top 10 in the country with highest cases of coronavirus infection. However, for the past around one month, it has managed to contain the virus and is currently placed at number 17 in the country. During this period, Haryana has not only increased its testing facility manifold but also improved other medical infrastructure to control the pandemic.
An analysis of the Covid-19 positive cases in the state further revealed that around 66% of the patients are male and 34% are female. Similarly, men also constitute 70% of the fatalities and women 30%.
Explaining the strategies for Covid management, additional chief secretary (department of health and home) Rajeev Arora said the focus is on patient management, clinical management and fatality management to contain the deadly virus. Under clinical management, an expert committee advices doctors and plasma therapy is being used. Patient management includes use of volunteer doctors and paramedical staff, enhanced bed capacity in CHCs/PHCs, filling of 409 posts sanctioned during the Covid-19 period for additional manpower including, epidemiologist and microbiologist. Of these, 183 posts have been filled.
Fatality management focuses on death audit of each Covid positive case, corrective measures to reduce fatalities, hospitalisation of co-morbid/elderly patients, timely referrals on escalation of symptoms and improving clinical practices via centres of excellence, Arora explained. He claimed that Haryana developed all these facilities and infrastructure during the pandemic period but got better results in terms of Covid management as compared to several states of the country.