With 85 new cases, Uttarakhand's Covid-19 count crosses 1000-mark

DEHRADUN: With 85 new cases on Tuesday, the Covid-19 tally in Uttarakhand has reached 1,043. Of the 85 new cases, 67 are returnees from Maharashtra. With 30 recoveries reported on the same day, active cases in the state are now 781.

Meanwhile, a 44-year-old man from Champawat’s Lohaghat area died at a Haldwani hospital on Tuesday.

While doctors claimed that he was a chronic alcoholic and diabetic, he had, however, tested Covid-19 positive on May 24. He had returned from Maharashtra on May 18. This is the 7th death of a Covid-19 patient in the state in the past one month.

Dr Arun Joshi, chief medical superintendent of Dr. Susheela Tiwari Government Hospital in Haldwani, said that the deceased was suffering from severe pneumonia.

Additional secretary (health) Yugal Kishore Pant said that Dehradun reported maximum, 37, cases on Tuesday, followed by 22 in Nainital. “Tehri reported 14 new cases on Tuesday, followed by six in Chamoli, three in Pauri, two in Rudraprayag and one in Haridwar,” said Pant, adding that all the positive cases from Nainital, Haridwar and Tehri are returnees from Mumbai. “Even 25 of the 37 cases reported in Dehradun and five cases in Chamoli are returnees from Mumbai,” he added.

With 1,268 new samples being sent for testing on Tuesday, the pendency of reports reached 6,863. The state’s Covid labs are so overburdened that over 500 samples from Haridwar district were sent to the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), New Delhi, in the past four days.

Haridwar chief medical officer Dr Saroj Naithani told TOI that All India Institute of Medical Sciences ( AIIMS ), Rishikesh, has stopped accepting samples from Haridwar after which the decision was taken to send them to Delhi. “We have now received the level 1 Covid testing machine in Haridwar and we will start testing here soon,” she added.