24 new Covid-19 positive cases reported in Uttarakhand

Dehradun: Uttarakhand saw the highest single-day jump of coronavirus cases on Thursday with 24 people testing positive, taking the tally to 146 in the state.

Out of the 24 cases, 10 reported on Thursday, in which five belong to Tehri, four from Dehradun Bageshwar and Uttarkashi each, two from Haridwar, Udham Singh Nagar and Nainital each and one from Almora.

Moreover, out of those new cases, 14 came from places like Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Gujarat, while the rest were primary contacts of already positive patients.

The five cases from Tehri had travelled in the same bus from Mumbai on May 17 and reached Tehri on May 19. The health department team has done random sampling on 10 passengers among which six found Covid positive—one on Wednesday morning and five in the midnight.

“We have placed all the passengers of the bus in isolation centre and they will be tested as well,” said Dr Jagdish Joshi from Tehri.

Dr PK Panda from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) told TOI that one patient from Bijnor, who was admitted in the hospital on May 19, tested Covid positive.

“The patient was admitted in surgical oncology department under the Covid restricted area and was suffering from carcinoma esophagus, commonly known as cancer of food pipe,” he said.

With the rising cases, the doubling rate of Covid cases has been drastically reduced in the last one week. On May 14, the doubling rate was 23 days, while on May 21 it was 9.45 days, with 91 active cases. Doubling rate means the time taken for the virus to spread.

The health department has sent 887 new samples for testing on Thursday after which 1,612 sample reports are awaited.

Over 1,000 samples were tested on Thursday and the first case of Uttarkahsi district was recovered too, after which the number of total recoveries reached 54 in the state.