Gurugram plans to reduce positivity rate from 11 to 6%

Gurugram: With a relatively high daily positivity rate of 11 per cent, officials in the Gurugram District Administration have now set themselves a target of bringing the COVID-19 positivity rate down to six per cent in the coming weeks. However, these officials continue to insist that the

pandemic is well under control in the district, which is one

of the worst affected areas in the country.

The administration here has said that the rate of 11 per cent positive cases being detected every day is "much better" compared to 20 per cent in the first two weeks of June and 13 per cent in the last two weeks of the same month. The administration also added that they will first begin with trying to bring the daily positivity rate by at least one percentage point in the next week and then proceed to further lowering it.

The task may however not prove to be easy for officials as a large number of cases are being reported from every part of Gurugram now. Moreover, not only from Gurugram city but also from the rural areas, cases are now pouring in. Gurugram figures among the top 10 worst affected cities due to COVID-19.

However, unlike Chennai, Bengaluru and Pune, the Haryana government has not decided to impose a lockdown. To curtail the spread of the virus however the District Administration has identified more than 100 containment zones in Gurugram.

There have also been eight Large Outbreak Regions (LOR) that have been earmarked in Gurugram where strict enforcements have been imposed for over two weeks. LORs are those areas which have reported cases in excess of 150. Besides restrictions, aggressive testing is also being undertaken in these areas with around 10,000 rapid antigen tests conducted in these areas alone. Officials of the Gurugram District Administration have not yet ruled out the possibility of increasing the number of LORs if the situation arises.

Moreover, the number of tests that are now being conducted in Gurugram has also increased with more than 2,500 samples being tested every day for the last two weeks. Despite the high positivity rate and cumulative cases, the district has also clocked a high recovery rate of 83 percent and ensured that the active patient-count is below 1,000.

"A high number of asymptomatic patients has also ensured that the burden on the district hospitals remains minimum. The worrying situation remains that there are still cases coming out and thereby we are following the three Ts of testing, tracing and treatment to improve the situation," said Dr Virender Yadav, Chief Medical Officer of Gurugram.