COURTESY HT JULY 22

NCR districts behind Haryana virus spread
MEASURES IN PLACE : Aggressive surveillance, testing and home isolation key to keep situation under control
Hitender Rao

hrao@hindustantimes.com

Chandigarh : Haryana’s tally of cumulative coronavirus positive cases is set to cross 35,000 by July end, as per the state health department’s projections. But at the same time, the number of recoveries is also expected to be around 27,000, leaving just around 7400 active infections by July 30, as per the forecast.

The bulk of positive cases, about 71%, have come from five national capital region (NCR) districts of Faridabad, Gurugram, Sonepat, Rohtak and Rewari.

However, with the state government allowing free movement of people, after easing lockdown restrictions, there are other nooks and corners like Ambala, Hisar, Panipat, Mahendragrah and Panchkula which are showing early signs of a wider spread.

The state has seen a massive jump in the number of infections in the last eight weeks, registering 24,980 cumulative positive cases in 56 days between May 25 and July 19, mainly on account of relaxations given in lockdown measures after May 18.

In comparison, there were only 1,184 cumulative positive cases in the initial 10 weeks (70 days) between March 16 and May 25. “Once the lockdown measures were relaxed, the infections started increasing due to back and forth movement of men and material from the national capital,” top officials said.

‘Increased testing brings higher positivity rate’

Health officials attribute the detection of more infections to increased sampling. Additional chief secretary (ACS), health, Rajeev Arora said that they were conducting about 10,000 RT-PCR and rapid antigen tests every day.

“We were testing about 5,000 persons per day in June. So we have doubled our testing. In fact, we have done more than 70,000 antigen tests in the state,” said Arora. More sample collection centres are being opened in every district, including about 45 recently in Faridabad.

‘Active cases matter the most’

The ACS said their recovery rate is pretty good at over 75 % which means there are fewer active cases. “The active cases determine how much pressure there is on the resources. Statistics show that about 45% to 50 % of the active infections are put in home isolation. So most of our isolation facilities, hospital beds, including the ventilator beds, are not burdened,” Arora said.

Strategy to tackle the virus

Health officials say they took the lead in going for home isolation of patients having mild symptoms. This proved to be a big success. Over 54 % of the 6,022 infected patients were in home isolation as of July 19.

“House-to-house surveillance, mobile clinics, testing international and domestic travelers, isolating the infected and tracing their contacts have been the thrust areas of our strategy,” Arora said.

“Picking up emerging hotspots early by using technology and data and aggressive containment in containment zones has ensured that we are in control of the situation. There is no need to panic but also no room for complacency,” the additional chief secretary, health added.