HP’S positivity rate drops to 5.3%

SHIMLA: Himachal Pradesh’s Covid positivity rate has dropped seven notches to 5.3% between May 31 and June 6, the state’s National Health Mission director Dr Nipun Jindal said.

Last week, 1,06,203 samples were tested, of which 5,634 returned positive against last week’s 10,431 positive reports against 80,990 tests.

The positivity rate (percentage of positive samples per 100 tests) had hit the grim high of 28.9% in the week ended May 16. It had been at a low of 0.67% in February and at the starting of March before the second wave raged through the state.

Kangra, the worst hit district in the second wave, recorded the highest positivity rate at 8.3%, followed by Shimla with a positivity rate of 7.7% and Chamba 6.2%. All 12 districts recorded a positivity rate below 10% and at least eight districts below 5%. Lahaul-spiti had the lowest positivity rate at 2.1%.

The case fatality ratio registered a slight drop from 3.4% to 3.0%. Dr Jindal 170 fatalities had taken place due to Covid-19 last week as compared to 359 the week before. Solan recorded a 4.9% CFR, followed by 4.1 in Kangra and 3.2 in Sirmaur.

Himachal logs

656 new infections DHARAMSHALA : Himachal Pradesh on Sunday recorded 656 fresh infection taking the state’s total caseload to 1,95,755, while the death toll mounted to 3,299 after 18 patients succumbed to the contagion.

At 130 , the highest cases were reported in Kangra, followed by 129 in Mandi, 82 in Chamba, 66 in Shimla, 48 in Solan, 41 in Una, 39 in Sirmaur, 35 in Kullu, 34 in Hamirpur, 31 in Bilaspur, 21 in Kinnaur and six in Lahaul-spiti.

Five fatalities were reported in Shimla, four each in Kangra and Solan , two in Mandi and one each in Bilaspur, Hamirpur and Una. Recoveries have reached 1,84,878 after 1,444 people recuperated.

Active cases have come down to 7,555. In terms of total cases, Kangra remains the worst-hit district with 44,614 infections. It is followed by Mandi with 26,157 cases and Shimla with 24,433 cases.