Over 10% Covid positivity rate in Panchkula, Gurugram: Indian Council of Medical Research

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 6

Two districts of Haryana — Panchkula and Gurugram — are among the 97 districts in the country which have a more than 10 per cent weekly positivity rate, says a report compiled by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

The data comprising testing carried out from June 28 to July 4 and included both Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT) and RTPCR. Panchkula recorded 14.34 per cent while Gurugram reported 10.32 per cent positivity rates.

Panchkula has 67 per cent testing by RT-PCR while Gurugram has 81 per cent. The positivity rate is measured as the ratio of positive cases and the number of tests conducted.

State Nodal Officer for Covid and Senior Professor and Head, Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, PGIMS, Rohtak, Dr Dhruv Chaudhary said, “The case of Panchkula is surprising. It is possibly due to the presence of BA.4 and BA.5 variants of omicron. These are the new subvariants of the omicron’s family.”

BA.4 and BA.5 are the reasons behind the spike in Covid cases globally as they grow faster than an earlier variant BA.2 which was responsible for the surge early this year.

Lahaul and Spiti (19.23 per cent), Shimla (10.66 per cent), Kullu (10.27 per cent), and Srinagar (10.53 per cent) are the other districts in the region having a more than 10 per cent weekly positivity rate.

There are 94 districts in the country having a weekly positivity rate of 5 per cent-10 per cent, and among them, six are from Haryana, according to the ICMR data.

Hisar recorded a 7.82 per cent weekly positivity rate while Faridabad and Kurukshetra reported 6.19 per cent and 6.04 per cent, respectively. Panipat recorded a 5.99 per cent weekly positivity rate, Ambala reported 5.13 per cent, and Rohtak 5.11 per cent. Except for Kurukshetra, all have the majority of testing by RT-PCR.

Three districts each of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab, and six of Delhi also fall in the category of 5 per cent -10 per cent weekly positivity rate.

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