1,904 new Covid cases, 7 deaths in 24 hours: Haryana puts curbs on social gatherings

Amid a fresh surge in Covid-19 infections across the state, Haryana on Sunday put a ceiling on the number of persons permitted at indoor and outdoor social gatherings.

At indoor functions, not more 50 per cent of the hall capacity will be allowed with a ceiling of 200 persons. At functions being held in open spaces, gatherings will be allowed with the limit being 500 persons. For funerals, upto 50 persons will be allowed.

Financial Commissioner Revenue and Additional Chief Secretary, Revenue and Disaster Management Department-cum-Member, Haryana State Executive Committee, Sanjeev Kaushal, said, “The capacity of indoor places will be specified by the urban local bodies/department concerned keeping in view calculated correlation between the number of chairs/seating or standing capacity and the covered area in sq. yards or sq. feet. This has been done under the revised standard operating procedure for the social, academic, sports, entertainment, cultural, religious political functions and other congregations. All functions will be allowed with strict adherence to the appropriate Covid-19 behaviour such as social distancing norms, wearing of face masks, sanitisation, hand hygiene and provision for thermal scanning, etc”.

“Organisers of social, academic, sports, entertainment, cultural, religious, political functions and other congregations shall take prior permission from the district magistrates. The DMs will issue permission after seeking necessary NOCs from the concerned departments, including the police. Deputy commissioners shall constitute joint inspection teams for enforcing these instructions and should ensure extensive checking and take action against the violators as per law, rules, instructions and directions issued from time to time by the state government. These directions shall be enforced by deputy commissioners in their respective districts, and any violations shall be punishable under the provisions of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 as well as under Section 188 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, as per national directives,” Kaushal added.

1,904 new cases, 7 deaths in 24 hours

In the last 24 hours, Haryana reported another 1,904 Covid cases while seven patients died. While Gurgaon added 555 new cases, Faridabad added 151, Sonipat (72), Hisar (54), Ambala (114), Karnal (185), Panipat (142), Rohtak (51), Rewari (4), Panchkula (200), Kurukshetra (135), Yamunanagar (98), Sirsa (31), Mahendragarh (5), Bhiwani (16), Jhajjar (38), Palwal (12), Fatehabad (3), Kaithal (6), Jind (34), Nuh (2) and Charkhi Dadri (5).

The number of active cases reached 12,574 Sunday evening, out of which 197 were in a critical condition (166 on oxygen support, 31 on ventilator support).

With 1,110 patients recovering in the last 24 hours, the recovery rate in Haryana Sunday evening was 94.71 per cent while the fatality rate was 1.07 per cent and Covid-positivity rate was 4.70 per cent.

34,304 persons vaccinated in 24 hours

The health department administered 34,304 Covid vaccine doses across the state Sunday, taking the consolidated figure of those vaccinated to more than 18.68 lakh, till Sunday.

On Haryana’s vaccine roll-out plan, ACS (Health) Rajeev Arora said, “The health department has set up 524 vaccination centres across the state. These centres have been strategically placed in highly populated areas across the state and even in rural areas to ensure maximum penetration of the vaccine so as to curtail the spread of the highly contagious Covid-19 virus. Most of the beneficiaries being vaccinated are above 60 years of age or between 45 years to 60 years.”

On the administration of vaccines to healthcare workers (HCWs) and frontline workers (FLWs) Arora added, “1,89,767 HCWs have been administered the first dose and around 1,14,157 have received the second dose.”

He further said: “1,19,586 FLWs have been administered the first dose and 42,455 FLWs the second dose. The number of first doses administered to beneficiaries above 60 years is 10,08,390 and second dose has been administered to 6,548 beneficiaries. For those within the age group of 45 to 60 years the first dose of the vaccine has been given to 3,85,289 beneficiaries and the second dose has been administered to 1,938.”