Haryana on Wednesday reported its biggest single-day jump in COVID-related fatalities with 181 deaths taking the cumulative toll to 4,960 and another big surge of 15,416 fresh infections pushing the tally to 5,58,975, officials said.
A day earlier, the state had reported 153 deaths and 15,786 cases. According to the health department’s daily bulletin, the latest deaths include 18 from Bhiwani, 15 each from Gurgaon and Hisar, 13 from Karnal, 11 each from Ambala and Panipat, 10 each from Jhajjar and Kaithal and 9 each from Sirsa, Yamunanagar, Rohtak and 8 from Faridabad district.
Among the districts that reported a substantial spike in new cases were Gurgaon (4,740), Faridabad (1,610), Sonipat (1,171), Hisar (985), Karnal (767), Sirsa (674), Panchkula (654), Panipat (645) and Mahendragarh (642). The number of total active cases in the state was 1,13,425 while the COVID positivity rate was 7.33 per cent.
As many as 4,40,590 patients have so far recovered and the recovery rate is 78.82, as per the bulletin. Responding to questions on the COVID situation in the state, Chief Minister M L Khattar told reporters on Wednesday evening that concrete steps have been taken by the his government to ensure an uninterrupted supply of oxygen and availability of both general, ICU and oxygen equipped beds in the state.
Haryana has demanded 20,000 injections of Remdesivir from the central government, out of which 12,700 have been received.
Besides, 160 Tocilizumab injections have been received out of which 80 injections each have been allocated to private and government hospitals, he said in the conference held virtually. Khattar said since the virus is spreading in rural areas too, directions have been given to the officers concerned to set up a screening camp in each village so that anyone having COVID-19 symptoms can be treated early and the possibility of infection spread can be prevented.
The chief minister said his government is leaving no stone unturned to ensure uninterrupted oxygen supply across the state. He said six districts including Faridabad, Sonipat, Karnal, Ambala, Panchkula and Hisar have plants having pressure swing adsorption (PSA) technology out of which trial for production of oxygen from the PSA technology has already been started at Sonipat, Faridabad, Hisar, and Karnal and production in the remaining two plants will start soon. Meanwhile, the Haryana government on Wednesday deputed four IAS and nine HCS officers to various districts in the state in order to strengthen the district administration efforts in their fight against COVID-19, an official statement said. Also, two IAS officers have been deputed to monitor smooth supply of oxygen to the state.
