Special wards set up as state’s black fungus tally touches 421; Gurugram leads with 149 cases

HARYANA GOVT HAS MADE A REQUISITION OF 12,000 AMPHOTERICIN-B INJECTIONS FROM THE CENTRE

Chandigarh: Haryana reported 24 new cases of black fungus, a disease mostly affecting recovering Covid patients, pushing the total cases in the state to 421, the health department said on Sunday.

Of the new cases, five were reported in Rohtak, four in Faridabad, three each in Fatehabad, Gurugram, and Hisar, two in Sonepat and one each in Bhiwani,panipat, Rewari, and Sirsa.

Gurugram is leading with 149 cumulative cases followed by Hisar (88), Faridabad (50), Sirsa (25), Rohtak (26), Karnal (17), Panipat (15), Ambala (11), Bhiwani, Fatehabad, Panchkula and Sonepat (eight), Rewari (six), Palwal and Yamunanagar (one).

Meanwhile, health minister Anil Vij said in view of the increase in black fungus cases special wards had been set up in all medical colleges. “The state government has made a requisition of 12,000 injections of Amphotericin-b (used for treating black fungus) from the central government. At present, there are 1,250 vials of the injection in the state,” he said. Black fungus was declared a notified disease in the state last week.

Haryana saw 15.64% positivity rate from March 1

Haryana on Sunday recorded 97 more Covid fatalities, taking the death toll to 7,512, while 4,400 new cases pushed the infection count to 7,38,028.

Fatalities were reported in all 22 districts, of which eight deaths each were clocked in Bhiwani and Hisar, seven in Karnal and six each from Faridabad, Ambala, Rewari and Jind districts. The districts with high caseload of infection were Bhiwani (494), Hisar (383), Jhajjar (355), Gurugram (308), Faridabad (299), Sonepat (260), Rewari (227), Yamunanagar (207), Sirsa (275), and Fatehabad (203). The active cases in the state stand at 42,816 while 6,87,700 people have recovered from the infection so far.

The Covid positivity rate — number of samples returning positive of every 100 samples tested per day — in Haryana between March 1 and May 23 during the second wave of the pandemic was 15.64%, the health department said.

The positivity rate on Sunday, when 4,400 fresh cases were detected against 52,282 samples collected, was 7.94%. The recovery rate rose to 93.18% while the fatality rate rose to 1.02%. The bulleting said 11.52 lakh people were screened in villages on Sunday.