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Covid cases in Haryana now doubling every 6 days; Gurgaon labs under scanner for irregular reports of testing

Haryana ACS (Health) Rajiv Arora issued notices to various private laboratories in Gurgaon for not sharing proper data of testing samples with the state government.

coronavirus cases, covid test, Gurgaon labs, Haryana news, indian express news Sources said Arora had also written to ICMR and the Union government apprising them that as many as 20 private laboratories in Gurgaon were not sharing any testing samples’ reports with the state government. (Representational)

Haryana witnessed the highest single-day spike with 296 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, with the maximum cases again recorded in Gurgaon district (160), followed by Faridabad (26) and Sonipat (21). With the total number of cases reaching 2,652 Tuesday evening, the case-doubling rate in the state also reached six days.

Haryana ACS (Health) Rajiv Arora issued notices to various private laboratories in Gurgaon for not sharing proper data of testing samples with the state government. Sources said Arora had also written to ICMR and the Union government apprising them that as many as 20 private laboratories in Gurgaon were not sharing any testing samples’ reports with the state government. He wrote that samples from Delhi were also being tested in Gurgaon’s laboratories.

Sources further said the state’s health department had found that even the addresses and phone numbers of those tested in private laboratories were fictitious and incorrect in several cases. The data being uploaded on the state government’s official portal for tracking Covid cases was also inaccurate, while authorised private laboratories were also delaying testing of samples.

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After a sudden spike in the number of cases in Gurgaon and Faridabad over the last week, Haryana’s Health and Home Minister Anil Vij had sent a team of senior health department officials headed by ACS (Health) last week to Gurgaon to assess the ground situation. Arora, in his report submitted to Vij, highlighted all these irregularities and discrepancies in testing protocols adopted by private laboratories.

Till date, 23 Covid patients have lost their lives in Haryana — 12 in Gurgaon and Faridabad. Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, while interacting with media persons online, said, “Out of these 23 who have died in Haryana, at least 16 had other life-threatening diseases including cancer, heart attack etc.”

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Till Tuesday evening, Haryana had 1,560 active Covid patients. Out of these, 775 were in Gurgaon, 240 in Faridabad and 84 in Sonipat. Besides these, there were 78 active patients in Rohtak and 48 in Hisar. All other districts had less than 40 active patients, while Panchkula and Yamunanagar had one active patient each. Till date, 1,069 patients have recovered and discharged from hospitals.

Acting on Union government’s guidelines, Haryana will also be adopting the new discharge policy for Covid patients. According to the guidelines, a patient who does not get fever for three consecutive days can be discharged. Earlier, all patients were being kept in hospital for 14 days. However, now patients can be discharged after 10 days. The patient’s second sample shall be tested on the seventh day of admission and if the report that comes within 48 hours tests negative, the patient will be discharged on tenth day.

Recovery rate dips to 40.31 per cent

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With the increasing number of cases across the state, especially in districts sharing borders with Delhi, the recovery rate of Covid patients in Haryana dipped to 40.31 per cent. The Covid-positive rate also increased to 2.21 per cent as the state ramped up its testing to 4,914 tests per million population. Till date, Haryana has tested 1,24,564 samples, of which 1,17,340 have tested negative while the report was awaited in 4,572 cases. There are 28,110 people under surveillance across the state, while 43,756 people have already completed their mandatory surveillance period.

Guidelines issued for taxis, cab aggregators, maxi cabs and autorickshaws

The Haryana government on Tuesday, issued guidelines for taxis, cab aggregators, maxi cabs and autorickshaw drivers.

“Taxi and cab aggregator will be allowed to ply with a maximum of two passengers in addition to the driver. This means that there will be a maximum of three persons in the vehicle at a time. The maxi cabs can ply with a maximum of half of their seating capacity. Autorickshaws and e-rickshaws are allowed to ply with two persons in addition to the driver. Likewise, the one pillion rider will be allowed on two-wheelers and it will be mandatory for both persons to wear helmets, masks and gloves. The manually-driven rickshaws will carry not more than two passengers,” the transport department spokesperson said.

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Since only essential activities are allowed in containment zones, movement within a containment zone shall be strictly regulated and allowed only for emergency and essential goods or service vehicles. “All drivers and passengers are advised to install the Aarogya Setu application on compatible mobile phones and regularly update their health status on the app,” the government spokesperson added.

Drivers of these vehicles will have to cover their faces with mask or cloth at all times. “Motor vehicles should be regularly sanitised and drivers and passengers should regularly use sanitisers. Social distancing shall be followed by all persons at all times. Provisions of hand wash and sanitiser will be made at all taxi or auto stands. Drivers at taxi or auto stands shall maintain safe social distance from each other,” the government guidelines read.

Total tests conducted till today: 1,24,564

Total test reports received in last 24 hours: 2,785

Total positive cases on Tuesday: 296

Migrants/foreigners who tested positive: 21 who were deported from USA on May 20 (2 have recovered, discharged)

First uploaded on: 02-06-2020 at 23:36 IST
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