A total of 13 persons died as the coronavirus death toll climbed to 130 in Haryana on Wednesday while the total patients in the State jumped to 8832 with the State health department reporting 560 new patients of the disease on Wednesday. Meanwhile, on a positive note, 204 patients were discharged from different hospitals of the State on the day after their complete recovery from the disease.

The spike in the number of Coronavirus  infected patients in four districts of the State are showing no sign of slowing down. On Wednesday, 228 new patients were reported from Faridabad district, taking the total in the district to 1807 while 180 cases surfaced in Gurugram, taking the total in the district to 3962. In Sonepat, 37 new patients were found, taking count to 668 while nine cases reported in Jhajjar, taking total to 158.

As many as 37 Covid-19 positive patients are critically ill and have been put on oxygen support while 14 patients on ventilator, said the Haryana Health officials.

In what is of grave concern for the authorities and an indicator of worsening condition, a total of 13 patients of the disease died on Wednesday which increased the death toll in the State to 130. Out of 13 Covid-19 deaths on the day, five reported from Gurugram while five from Faridabad and two from Sonepat and one each from Karnal.

With 3952 people cured and discharged from the hospitals, there are 4750 active Covid-19 cases in Haryana now.

Health official said that out of 1, 97, 703 samples, 1, 83, 395 were found negative for the disease on Wednesday. He added that reports of 5476 samples are still awaited by the department.  The State has a recovery rate of 44.75 per cent, fatality rate at 1.47 per cent while tests per million being conducted are 7799. The doubling rate in the State is 10 days.

On Wednesday, in Ambala, four new patients were found, taking count to 212 while 16 patients from Palwal, four in Panipat, two in Panchkula, six in Jind, 16 in Karnal, 15 in Yamunanagar, two in Sirsa, four in Fatehabad, five in Bhiwani, 19 in Hisar, eight in Rewari and five in Kurukshetra.

DEATH TALLY REACHES 78, NEW CASES 126 IN PUNJAB

Recording deaths for the seventh consecutive day and fresh cases in three-digit figures for the third consecutive day, Punjab’s Covid-19 death toll has reached 78 while the tally is inching close to 3500 in the State at 3497.

June has witnessed 46 percent of the total deaths reported in the State, after the first was recorded on March 18. Besides, the State has also recorded 35 percent of the State’s Covid-19 cases in June alone. 

On Wednesday, the State has reported 126 new cases of coronavirus, including 70 as contacts of the already diagnosed positive cases, 38 “new” cases having no travel or contact history comprising 17 with Influenza-like Illness (ILI), three ANC (health workers), and one police official. Besides, 17 have travel history from other states or countries, with maximum eight foreign returnees in Jalandhar. 

The state has also recorded six deaths—four from Amritsar, and one each from Sangrur and Ferozepur. 

Three districts — Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar — accounted for 69 percent of Wednesday’s cases. These three districts have the highest number of cases in the state, and account for 43 percent of the total positive cases reported till date with 659, 449, and 409, respectively. 

In fact, the top five districts, in terms of number of cases in the state, account for more than half of the total cases. Amritsar, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Mohali and Patiala together make up 53.85 percent of the total cases. 

Of the 126 cases reported on Wednesday, Ludhiana reported the highest 40, of which 34 were the contacts of already diagnosed cases, three were categorized as ILI and three others were the new cases with no contact history. Jalandhar, for the second successive day, reported more than 30 cases. Among the 31 positive cases, 21 were the contacts of already diagnosed cases, eight were people who just returned from abroad, and two were new cases with no contact or travel history. Among Amritsar’s 17 cases, 12 were ILI cases and five were contacts of previously diagnosed patients.

 While a policeman was tested positive in Tarn Taran, three health workers — two in Moga and one in Fatehgarh Sahib — were tested positive.

 Besides Jalandhar, six other districts reported cases with travel history — SAS Nagar (Mohali) with one of the five cases with travel history to Gurgaon), Pathankot wth two out of six cases of travel history to Delhi, Kapurthala with one case of travel history to Tamil Nadu, Fazilka with one case of travel history to Delhi), Mansa with all three new cases with travel history to Delhi, and Moga with one of the three new cases of travel history to Delhi.

 As many 77 patients — including 46 from Jalandhar, nine from Sangrur, five from Mohali, three each from Pathankot and Kapurthala, two each from Tarn Taran, Patiala, Fatehgarh Sahib, Moga, and Mansa, besides one from Gurdaspur — have recovered and discharged. With this, a total of 2538 persons have been recovered at a recovery rate of 72.57 percent, leaving just 881 active cases, which forms 25 percent of the total positive cases reported till date.

FIVE FEMALES TEST POSITIVE IN CHANDIGARH 

Five female residents were tested positive for Covid-19 in Chandigarh on Wednesday taking the total number of cases to 370. New cases were reported from Sector 25 colony and Ramdarbar. All cases are family contacts of already positive patients in the city.

“Three family contacts of a 35 years old positive patient from Sector 25 colony have been tested positive for Coronavirus. The three members include women aged 26, 30 and 54 years,” stated the Chandigarh Health Department’s evening bulletin. The 35 years old man was working at an office- PMIDC at Sector-35 and a total of 32 contacts of the patient were traced by UT officials for screening and testing.

“Two fresh cases have been reported from Ramdarbar. Two women aged 48 and 25 years have been tested positive. They are family contacts of already positive case from Ramdarbar,” the bulletin stated. On Tuesday night, a 58 years old male resident of Ramdarbar was tested positive. He is a workplace contact of four already diagnosed Covid-19 positive cases of Punjab.

 Four patients have also recovered and been discharged in the city on Wednesday. 306 patients have recovered till now and the recovery rate of Covid-19 patients in Chandigarh stood at 82 percent on Wednesday. The total cases till the evening were 370 which included 58 active patients, the bulletin added.

 Meanwhile, the nomenclature of nursing staff was changed on Wednesday  to encourage the frontline Covid warriors “The new nomenclature for ‘staff nurse’ will be ‘nursing officer’.

For ‘nursing sister’, the new nomenclature will be ‘senior nursing officer’,” stated an order issued by UT Administration. Manoj Parida, Adviser to UT Administrator said, “To encourage our Covid warriors, the designation of staff nurses is changed to nursing officer and nursing to senior nursing officer.”