Covid-19 positivity rate rises to 11% in Himachal
As Covid cases in Himachal Pradesh witness a surge, the state’s positivity rate has jumped to 10.7% from 8.5% registered last week.
Kangra, Shimla and Mandi are the worst-affected districts. As many as 15 girl students of Government College of Teachers Education in Dharamshala have tested positive for Covid and been isolated.
“There has been a rise in Covid cases in Himachal, particularly after the government increased the testing. The maximum clusters are in Kangra district,” said principal secretary, Health, Subashish Panda.
Kangra has 14 clusters, which also include residences of Tibetans in Mcleodganj, the abode of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama since 1959. “We are repeatedly appealing to the people to follow Covid protocols. We have also issued an advisory to the government department and officers to ensure that people wear masks indoors,” he added.
A total of 22,077 samples were sent for testing last week (July 11-17) in the state of which, 2,371 turned out positive.
Mandi was on the top of the tally with a positivity rate of 19.2%. A total of 1,352 samples were tested in the district, of which 261 detected positive. Similarly, 439 cases were reported in Chamba where 3,103 samples were tested. The positivity rate in the district was second highest at 14.2%.
Kullu reported 152 positive samples out of 1,153 sent for testing with a positivity rate of 13.2%.
In Shimla, 326 samples tested positive out of 2,583, pushing the positivity rate to 12.6%.
Kangra has the positivity rate of 10.2%. A total of 565 samples out of 5,534 tested turned out positive there.
Among other districts, Una’s positivity rate was 9.5%, Sirmaur (9.2%), Kinnaur (8.7%), Solan (8.4%), Hamirpur (7.1%) and Lahaul-Spiti (7%). Bilaspur has the lowest positivity rate of 4.8%.
The state also recorded five fatalities last week. Three deaths were reported in Chamba and one each in Kullu and Mandi.
On Tuesday, 616 new Covid cases were detected in the state, while 322 recovered and no death took place during the past 24 hours.
Active cases now stand at 2,939 in Himachal.
CM launches vaccination campaign
Chief minister Jai Ram Thakur launched the ‘Covid-19 Vaccination Amrit Mahotsav’ campaign from Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital here on Tuesday.
“This drive is going on since July 15 and would continue till September 30. A target has been set to administer precaution doses free of cost to about 51 lakh eligible people above the age of 18 years in 75 days. This too will be completed ahead of time,” he added.
Jai Ram said his government is keeping an eye on the increase in the number of Covid cases in the state.
He urged the people to adopt Covid-appropriate behaviour and come forward to get themselves vaccinated. He said that the state now has a capacity of about 11,500 beds with 48 PSA plants, three LMO plants, about 18,000 oxygen cylinders, and 1,014 ventilators.