Virus still down in Haryana but may raise its head again soon, say experts

CHANDIGARH: The Covid-19 trajectory in Haryana continued its downward trend for the 12th week in a row even as the state reported a meagre increase in the number of positive cases last week. Experts said that the infection rate which has been at the lowest ever for the past five weeks is expected to go up in the coming days.

The transmission of infection is expected to pick up gradually because of the lifting of lockdown restrictions, including opening of educational institutions, offices, shops, malls, eateries and allowing more people to attend social events. After reopening schools, the state government is contemplating to start academic session in universities too. Health officials said they were keeping their fingers crossed.

Last week (July 26-Aug 1), the state reported 203 infections as compared to 200 the week before.

Additional chief secretary, health, Rajeev Arora said this was an insignificant increase considering the fact that 1.67 lakh persons were tested for the infection last week. “However, we need to be watchful and not lower our guard,” he said.

The dwindling numbers are unprecedented during a spell of decrease in the transmission of infection, data shows.

The positivity rate for the second wave of infection (from March 1 to August 1) has also declined significantly. It was 9.55% this Monday as compared to 9.86% last Monday.

Also, the daily positivity rate which went as high as 27% during the second wave in AprilMay,

has come down to as low as 0.07%. The devastating second wave of virus transmission saw 4.21 lakh infections and more than 4,200 fatalities in a period of six weeks during April-May.

Across 22 districts there were only 703 active cases as on August 2 with Hisar being the sole district to have more than 100 active cases. Sixteen districts continued to have less than 50 active cases. Nineteen persons died last week due to the viral infection. Nine districts continued to be out of critical positivity rate category having a cumulative positivity rate of less than 6%. The remaining 13 are also experiencing a decline in the cumulative positivity rate with Yamunanagar, Bhiwani and Sirsa districts closing in to exit the critical category if the downward trend continues for couple of more weeks, health officials said.