High CFR a concern even as positivity rate dips in HP
Second wave peak over, says NHM state director Nipun Jindal
SHIMLA: Himachal Pradesh has recorded a sharp decline of 9.4% in the Covid-19 positivity rate over the past week.
The state’s director of National Health Mission, Dr Nipun Jindal, said the positivity rate had dropped to 19.5% in the week from May 17-23. It had hit the grim high of 28.9% in the preceding week from May 10-16.
The positivity rate was at a low of 0.67% in February and started rising in March when the second wave hit the state.
The positivity rate is the percentage of positive samples per 100 tests. Last week, a total of 96,135 samples were tested of which 18,794 were positive as against 99,807 tests and 28,817 positive cases the week before, thus a decline of 11.4% in the rate.
Six of the state’s 12 districts have a positivity rate above 20%, while four districts have a rate above 10% and only Kinnaur
(8.4%) and Lahaul-Spiti (4.4%) are below 10%. Dr Jindal said the drop in positivity rate is due to the decline in the average daily number of cases being reported in the state.
Last week, 2,685 cases were detected daily on an average, whereas in the week before that, this number was as high as 4,117.
The trend indicates that the peak is over. The state’s case fatality ratio (CFR) was high at 2.34% with 441 patients succumbing to the contagion. During the
week before last, the state recorded 439 deaths and the CFR was 1.52%. On an average, 63 people died daily last week. Hamirpur had the highest CFR of 3.9%, Solan 2.87%, Shimla 2.55%, Kullu 2.49% and Kangra 2.38%.
However, in terms of absolute number of deaths Kangra was on top with 131 people succumbing to the contagion. Fifty-six people died in Hamirpur and 55 in Shimla.
Dr Jindal said the total death count in the state had reached
2,752, including 1,684 (61.2%) male and 1,068 (38.8%) female and the mean age of the deceased was 61.9 years.
Black fungus protocol
Meanwhile, the State Covid Clinical Committee announced a new treatment protocol for mucormycosis (black fungus).
Dr Jindal said, “The disease is completely curable if detected early and treated by injectable antifungal amphotericin B and other medicines.”