Haryana: Daily cases begin to come down, high death rate yet cause of concern; bed availability increasing

Once the lockdown was further extended by another week, the daily new cases continued to come down, even as daily testing of samples continued to increase.

The ongoing lockdown in Haryana — or Mahamari Alert/ Surakshit Haryana as the state government prefers to call it — has started showing the desired results, with the number of active cases once again dipping significantly over the last one week. The number of recoveries, too, has been on a constant upward surge. Consequently, the number of beds available, both for patients requiring oxygen and those requiring ventilators, has increased.

A lockdown had been imposed in Haryana from May 3 onwards, despite reservations from many quarters, to arrest the sudden surge in new cases and rising fatalities owing to Covid-19. The lockdown has been extended twice since its imposition.

At present, the increase in the number of deaths due to Covid-19, however, remains a point of concern for the state government. Till May 2, there were 4486 fatalities due to the virus. The number increased to 6546 on May 15 and 6685 on May 16.

Concerned health department officials, however, maintain that the increase in fatalities is majorly due to patients, who were admitted to hospitals before the lockdown commenced on May 2, succumbing to the virus. Officials strongly believed that a decline in the number of Covid-related fatalities is likely to be witnessed in the coming few days.

According to the state health department, as of May 16, there were 3652 oxygen beds (out of a total 12656 beds) available in government, private hospitals, and medical colleges across Haryana. As far as ventilator/ICU beds are concerned, out of 5114 beds in government, private hospitals, and medical colleges, at least 801 were vacant, as of May 16.

Officials said that they continue to ramp up the Covid-care infrastructure, with an aim to increase the bed-capacity in the state to at least 19500. On Sunday, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar inaugurated two 500-bed facilities, each in Hisar and Panipat, 20 ICU and 80 oxygen bed facility created by Vedanta Group in Tau Devilal Stadium in Gurgaon’s Sector 38 and another 300-bed Covid-care centre that has been built by the M3M group, CII and Indian Air Force. Apart from this, another 100-bed facility has been created by the Hero Group in Gurgaon’s Sector 14.

As per the state health department’s Covid-19 data, there were 95946 active Covid-19 patients in Haryana on May 15. Out of these, 82416 were under home isolation, while 304 were admitted in dedicated Covid Care Centers and 13226 were admitted in Covid hospitals/ Covid Health centres.

On May 2, when a complete lockdown was first imposed, there were 105270 active Covid-19 patients in Haryana, while the daily new cases were 13322. The cumulative Covid-19 positivity rate was 6.89 per cent and the recovery rate hovered around the 78.68 per cent mark.

Within one week, on May 9, the number of active Covid-19 patients reached 116867 and the daily new cases touched 13548. The cumulative positivity rate had increased to 7.86 per cent. However, the recovery rate too continued to rise, with the number of patients recovering from the virus outstripping the number of new cases.

Once the lockdown was further extended by another week, the daily new cases continued to come down, even as daily testing of samples continued to increase.

On May 15, the daily new cases came down to 9676 — the first time in 23 days that the number had dipped below 10,000. On April 22, the number of daily new cases were 9742, after which it increased to 11854 on April 23 and continued to rise. The recovery rate reached 85.04 per cent on May 15. However, the cumulative positivity rate increased to 8.36 per cent, which the officials attributed to the number of active cases that had increased in the past one month.

On May 15, the number of active Covid-19 cases had come down below the 1 lakh mark, with 95946 active cases till May 15 evening.

On May 16, there was a further reduction in the daily new cases (9115), while 14856 patients recovered reducing the number of active Covid-19 patients to 90066.

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