Jhajjar Loses Coronavirus-Free Tag as 5 Fresh Cases Surface in Haryana; Total Now 301

Chandigarh: Haryana's Jhajjar district reported its first Covid-19 case on Monday, after remaining coronavirus-free for so long despite falling in the National Capital Region, which has a large number of hostpots or 'red zones'.

Five more people tested positive for the virus in the state on Monday, taking the total to 301, officials said.

Of the fresh cases, two were reported in Sonipat and one each in Jhajjar, Faridabad and Ambala, they said. With this, the number of confirmed cases in Sonipat, which borders the national capital, rises to 22.

Sonipat now has the maximum number of active cases in Haryana at 18, followed by Gurgaon (15) and Nuh (13).

The worst affected districts of the state so far are Nuh with 57 cases, Gurgaon with 51, Faridabad with 46, Palwal with 34, Sonipat with 22 and Panchkula with 18 cases.

State Health Minister Anil Vij had on Sunday said it had come to light that many of the coronavirus positive cases in the NCR districts, including Sonipat, Gurgaon and Faridabad, had contracted the infection from the national capital.

Daily movement of the people working in Delhi to their residences in the NCR regions of Haryana increases the chances of the infection to spread, Vij had said and appealed to Arvind Kejriwal to make arrangements for their stay in the national capital. According to the state Health Department''s daily bulletin, the number of active cases in Haryana stands at 85, while 213 people have recovered. The state has recorded three COVID-related deaths, it said.

As on Monday evening, the state further improved its recovery rate from 67.22 per cent to 70.76 per cent.

The fatality rate also came down from 1.01 per cent to 0.99 per cent, the bulletin stated, adding that the rate of doubling of cases was 19 days, while the number of tests conducted per million of population was 907.

As many as 22,993 samples have been tested so far, out of which reports of 1,990 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.