Monday, 17 May 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
The scale of the prevailing second wave of the Covid 19 in Uttarakhand could be understood from the fact that 48 percent of all cases of the disease and 55 percent of total deaths from Covid-19 so far have occurred in the last three weeks in the state. In the week ending May 15 which is the 61st week of the pandemic ever since the first case of the disease was reported in the state on March 15 last year, a total of 44,856 cases of Covid 19 were reported. Similarly 38,581 and 52,369 cases were reported in 59th and 60th week respectively. The state had reported 2,83,239 cases of the disease till May 15. Similarly 1,075 deaths from the disease occurred in 61st week, 817 in 60th week and 629 in 59th week in the state. In these three weeks, a whopping 2521 deaths occurred which is 55 percent of total deaths ( 4,623) which have so far occurred from Covid 19.
One of the worrying factors is that while the death and number of cases are on record breaking trend the numbers of tests are decreasing. In the week ending May 15, only 1,97,908 tests were done which is 17,373 less tests than the previous week. The data shows that 2,15,281 tests were done in 60th week, 2,78,206 in 59th week, 2,36,656 in 58th week, 2,84,288 in 57th week and 2,39,522 in 56th week in Uttarakhand.
The founder of Social Development for Communities (SDC) Foundation Anoop Nautiyal said that every fourth or fifth person tested in Uttarakhand in the past two weeks is positive. The state needs to significantly ramp up its testing, contact tracing, medication provision, healthcare services and vaccination efforts in both the Urban and mountainous areas, he said.
