Covid-19 count climbs to 317 in U’khand

The returning migrant powered surge in the cases of novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) in Uttarakhand continues unabated as 73 new patients of the disease were reported by the state health department on Sunday. With them the number of cases of the disease in the state has climbed to 317. Meanwhile the swab sample of a pregnant woman who had died at the Government Doon Medical College (GDMC) hospital on Saturday was found positive for the disease. She was pregnant and was a resident of Shamli in Uttar Pradesh. However the hospital authorities claim that cause of her death was tuberculosis and not Covid-19 from which she was found infected. Two patients of the disease were discharged from hospitals in Almora district after their recovery from the disease on Sunday.

On the day, 36 patients of the disease were reported from Nainital district while Udham Singh Nagar reported nine cases. Similarly, eight patients each were reported from Chamoli and provisional state capital Dehradun. In Almora, five patients were reported by the health department while three swab samples were found positive in Tehri district. One patient each was found in Pauri and Champawat districts.

 In Dehradun district one person who was working with the vegetable dealer (found positive earlier ) was found positive. One nursing officer of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Rishikesh was found infected with the disease. Six patients found positive in Dehradun are residents of  other states who travelled recently to the state. In Nainital all 32 patients reported infected with the disease on the day are occupants of the train which had arrived in Haridwar from Mumbai on May 20. Fifty five passengers of this train were found positive for Covid-19 on Saturday. All these passengers were transported in buses from Haridwar to Haldwani in Nainital district. In Tehri all the three patients reported on Sunday have travel history from Mumbai. Similarly eight patients reported from Udham Singh Nagar district had travelled from Mumbai while one is close contact of an earlier positive case.

 The additional secretary, state health department, Yugal Kishore Pant said reports of 943 samples were found negative for the disease on Sunday.  He added that reports of 3023 samples are still awaited by the department. On Sunday, a total of 1120 samples were collected for Covid -19 testing.  The authorities have so far taken swab samples of 20,969 suspected patients for COVID-19 test.  Out of the total samples taken, 1.75 percent samples have been found positive for the disease.  On Sunday, the rate of recovery from the Covid-19 in the state slid further to 18 percent. Incidentally the recovery rate was about 67 per cent few days ago and was 37 per cent on Friday. In an indication of spread of contagion in Uttarakhand, the data of the health department shows that the doubling rate of the disease now stands at 4.18 days. Incidentally the doubling rate on May 11 was 45 days and after that it steadily declined.  A total of 1647978 people have so far downloaded the Aarogya Setu app on their smart phones. A total of 15491 people are in facility quarantine in different parts of the state.

Uttarakhand now has 255 active cases of the disease. The Nainital district where the train carrying large number of patients arrived from Mumabi is at top of table with 107 active cases. Dehradun with 42 and Udham Singh Nagar with 38 active cases are at second and third positions respectively. Tehri, Uttarkashi, Chamoli and Almora districts have nine active cases each while Champawat and Bageshwar have eight active cases each. Haridwar district has seven active cases while Pauri has six active cases. Rudraprayag district has three active cases while Pithoragarh has two active patients of the disease.

The recent spike in cases has forced the authorities to put all 13 districts of state into orange zone on Sunday. It is worth mentioning here that Dehradun, Pauri, Uttarkashi,  Almora, Nainital and Udam Singh Nagar districts were in orange in the last week while Haridwar, Tehri, Rudraprayag, Chamoli, Pithoragarh, Bageshwar and Champawat were in green zone. Now all these districts too have been included in orange zone for Covid-19.