COVID-19 in Gurugram: 1 of 3 tested in last two weeks are +ve
Gurugram: Even as the COVID-19 situation in Delhi is getting increased attention in the last few weeks, NCR city Gurugram's Coronavirus numbers are bad enough to set alarm bells ringing everywhere. According to data from May 29, more than one in every three people who are tested for the contagious disease has turned out to be positive. On May 29, Gurugram had for the first time recorded more than 100 new daily cases.
And every day in June, the daily number of new cases has been above 100. While on an average around 300 to 400 samples are collected daily for testing, the maximum number of daily sample collection so far has been 652 on June 8, on the day the city recorded its highest-ever single-day increase in cases (243). Between May 29 and June 10, 5,299 samples were tested, of which 1,922 were positive, with a positivity rate of above 36 per cent.
The rising number of COVID-19 cases has once again brought out the weaknesses of the healthcare and governance systems of Gurugram. In a city that has an estimated population of above 20 lakh residents, testing rates are significantly abysmal, with only 18,077 samples having been tested for COVID-19 till June 10.
And even with the city's close proximity to the Capital and a mostly urban population, there are no government labs in Gurugram conducting Coronavirus tests. All samples from the city are sent to laboratories in Rohtak and Sonepat, where the tests are conducted and results are sent back.
With this, many people are also complaining of results not being delivered on time. While the average time taken to deliver the results is one to two days, there have been
several instances where the results have not been delivered for over a week.
And while in the first week of May, Gurugram had the least number of cases among NCR cities, the city is well on its way to securing a spot on the list of cities with the highest number of Coronavirus cases in the second week of June, with a total case count of 2,546 as of June 10.
At the end of Lockdown 1.0, the city had 24 cases and after Lockdown 3.0 ended, the cases started spiraling in Gurugram with over 700 cases having been recorded by the end of Lockdown 4.0. And with increasing cases, the fatalities in Gurugram have seen a gradual increase, albeit not as sharply. On Thursday, a Gurugram Police official who tested positive died in a private hospital here. Excluding this police official, the district administration put the death toll in Gurugram at 13 as of June 10.
From June, the cases have only spiraled further and there are fears that the total number of COVID -19 cases in the district will breach the 3,000-mark in a day or two. Amid the grim scenario, the only silver lining for the District Administration remains that more than 70 percent of the patients who have mild symptoms and are getting treated at home and the healthcare infrastructure has so far not yet been overwhelmed.
There is not a single area in the Gurugram city where the cases have not emerged, yet there are complaints that the district administration is deliberately not adding more areas in the list of containment zones.
