GURUGRAM: For the first time this year, the city breached the 700 mark of daily Covid-19
cases, with 741 people testing positive for the virus on Thursday. The caseload currently stands at 67,490.
The last time more than 700 cases were reported was nearly five months ago, on November 13, 2020, when 797 people had tested positive. On November 8, the city had seen a daily peak of 964 cases.
The active caseload crossed the 4,000 mark for the first time in 2021. As of Thursday, the city had 4,455 active cases, and 4,160 of the patients were in home isolation.
The health department said 191 patients also recovered on the day, bringing the total number of recoveries to 62,667. The recovery rate stands at 95%. No
deaths were reported. So far, 368 people in the city have died of
Covid, of whom 283 had comorbidities. The case fatality rate stands at 0.5% while the positivity rate is 7.8%.
A total of 23 people were sent to institutional quarantine facilities on Thursday. So far, 9,92,760 people have been put under surveillance in the city. In the past 24 hours, the health authorities collected 8,043 samples for antigen and RT-PCR tests. Till now, 9,89,174 samples have been sent for testing, of which 9,13,641 returned negative while the results of 4,205 are awaited.
The ICU bed occupancy has gone up by 500% since March 1 because of the rise in daily new cases. The city has 369 ICU beds reserved for Covid patients, out of which 90 are occupied at present. Out of 253 beds with ventilators, 30 are engaged. On March 1, 15 ICU beds were occupied and four beds with ventilators were engaged.
Of the total 4,894 beds, including 691 ICU beds and 328 with ventilators, in 43 hospitals in the city, 2,650 have been reserved for Covid patients. Of these, 427 are occupied at the moment. On March 1, 103 beds were occupied.
The health department said testing has been ramped up and more than 8,000 samples are being taken daily to isolate and treat patients at the earliest. Also, the number of recoveries has also been in the range of 180 to 190 daily. “The spike will continue for the next three weeks. The weekly positivity rate is between 7% and 8%. We are trying to bring it down to 5%,” said Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer, Gurugram.
No. of sealed areas up
The number of containment zones also increased on Thursday, from 35 to 61. Some of the highrises sealed include towers in Jalvayu Vihar in Sector 56, Uniworld Garden in Sector 47, Ivory Victory Valley in Sector 67, Tulip Violet Society in Sector 69, Emaar Palm Drive in Sector 66 and Ireo Uptown in Sector 66.