Haryana COVID-19 count nears 300, woman SI among fresh cases

Coronavirus cases in Haryana rose to 296 on Sunday after nine people, including a woman police sub-inspector and her three family members from Panipat district, tested positive, according to a state health department bulletin.

Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij said 70 police personnel attached to Samalkha Police Station in Panipat district, where the woman SI is currently posted, have been quarantined.

He said the SI's brother, employed with the Delhi Police, has also tested COVID-19 positive. Vij said their parents, too, were found positive.

In its daily bulletin, the state health department said four fresh cases were reported from Panipat, while Hisar and Sonipat recorded two and one case, respectively. Later in the day, two cases were reported from Faridabad.

Among the total cases in Haryana are 24 foreigners -- from Italy, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Thailand, South Africa and Indonesia -- and 64 people from other states of India, the bulletin said.

Vij said the state government had appealed to the Arvind Kejriwal dispensation to make staying arrangements in the national capital itself for Haryana residents who are employed with the Delhi government.

He said it has come to light that many of the coronavirus patients in the NCR districts including Sonipat, Gurgaon and Faridabad have been found to have contracted infection from the national capital and said daily movement of the employees working in Delhi to their residences in Haryana increases the risk of COVID-19 spread.

"Haryana's Chief Secretary Keshni Anand Arora on Sunday apprised her Delhi counterpart about the situation, saying this kind of movement has to be stopped and Delhi government should not issues passes to these employees for movement," said Vij.

"First, it was Tablighi Jamaat members who led to spike in number of cases in Haryana as 120 of them were found positive. Now, it is the movement of these employees from the national capital to their residences in Haryana which is increasing the threat of infection in the state," Vij said.

Nuh with 57 novel coronavirus cases, followed by Gurgaon (51), Faridabad (45), Palwal (34), Sonipat (20) and Panchkula (18) are among the worst affected districts in Haryana.

According to the bulletin, 199 people have been discharged from hospitals after recovery from the infection, leaving 94 active cases in the state. Haryana has recorded three coronavirus-related deaths.

As on Sunday evening, the state has a recovery rate of 67.22 per cent, fatality rate of 1.01 per cent, COVID-19 positive rate (proportion of positive cases to total tests conducted) of 1.51 per cent, the doubling rate of cases is 18 days, while tests per million being conducted are 846, the bulletin said.

As many as 20,885 samples have been tested so far, out of which 18,581 have tested negative. The reports of 2,010 samples are awaited.       Among the foreign nationals who tested positive, 14 were Italian tourists and later 13 of them were discharged, while one elderly woman in the group passed away recently even though she had recovered from COVID-19.

The other 10 foreign nationals found positive are from Sri Lanka, Nepal, Thailand, South Africa and Indonesia, according to the bulletin.