This story is from May 29, 2020

Gurugram surpasses Noida in Covid-19 case count with steepest 1-day rise

Gurugram surpasses Noida in Covid-19 case count with steepest 1-day rise
Photo for representative purpose only
GURUGRAM: In its sharpest single-day spike yet, 68 people tested positive for Covid-19 in Gurugram on Thursday, taking its case count to 405. It now accounts for more than a fourth of Haryana’s 1,504 cases.
This also takes the city’s tally well past Noida’s 377, which, after an initial surge, saw cases dipping briefly, and is seeing a rise again — one that is steady, but not sharp.

Gurgaon surpasses Noida in Covid case count with steepest 1-day rise

Among NCR cities, Gurugram’s case load is now the highest after Delhi, which has 16,281 cases, 1,024 of which were reported on Thursday itself. The capital’s other neighbouring cities have reported significantly lower numbers — Faridabad has 276 cases, Ghaziabad 260, Sonepat 180 and Jhajjar 97.
According to the Haryana health bulletin, Gurugram also reported a Covid-19 death — of a resident of New Railway Road — on Thursday, taking the toll to three.
Officials attributed the spike to more testing and better surveillance. “The cases are increasing as we have increased the number of tests. Also, most cases are contacts of Covid patients. We are analysing the situation and will conduct a door-to-door survey in areas that have cases,” said a health department official.

Before Thursday, Gurugram’s biggest single-day surge had been 33 cases on Tuesday. The city saw its first case on March 16. The first major spike was reported on May 6 when 17 people, most of them linked to Azadpur mandi, tested positive and the cases jumped to 104. Gurugram went past the 200 mark on May 17 and on May 26, it crossed 300 cases.
Over the past three days, the city has reported 89 cases. Most of the last 200 cases, according to the health department, have been contacts of other Covid patients.
Sources in the department told TOI that the several new cases are from urban clusters, such as Chakkarpur (seven), Mullahera (two) and Khandsa mandi (one). As these areas are densely populated, curbing the spread of the novel coronavirus infection has been a difficult task, they added.
In the past few days, several cops on border duty at Sirhaul and Kapashera have also tested positive, causing some concern to health officials and the administration.
Rajeev Arora, additional chief secretary, health, said that as many people in urban clusters are getting infected, the plan is to prepare data and transfer high-risk people to isolation centres to check the spread of the virus. “People with illness and who are aged should be isolated from these clusters,” he said.
Arora said some private labs in Gurugram that were not authorised by the Indian Council of Medical Research and the Haryana government had been collecting samples and conducting Covid-19 tests. He has directed the health department to ask them not to conduct tests without approval. “All private labs should publish the test results within 24 hours or action will be initiated against them,” he said.
Among Thursday’s cases are seven residents of Sector 51 and five each of Sector 10 A and Pratap Nagar. There are four cases linked to W Pratisha hospital in Sector 56. There are two cases from DLF 4 and one from DLF 2. There is also a patient each from Manesar, Hari Nagar, Saraswati Vihar and Bhim Nagar.
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