'78% COVID-19 patients in Haryana are men, many patients of young age': Health Minister

As many as 78 per cent coronavirus patients in Haryana are male and many of the total cases fall in the young age group bracket. Besides, Tablighi Jamaat members account for 46 per cent of the cases, Health Minister Anil Vij said on Tuesday while sharing data from the state health department.

As on April 25, data pertaining to 273 positive cases in the state revealed that 78 per cent per cent patients were male while 22 per cent were female, he said.

As many as 74 cases were of people in the 25-34 age group, 53 cases were in the 15-24 age group, 22 in the 65-74 age category while no patient was above 85 years of age.

"The Tablighi Jamaat people accounted for 46 per cent of the cases, international travellers 14.5 per cent, health staff 18.7 per cent, domestic travellers 6.2 per cent. Contacts of positive cases accounted for 48.18 per cent cases, while contacts of Tablighis were 20.7 per cent, vendor/shopkeepers etc. accounted for 28.10 per cent," he said.

Haryana saw the maximum weekly spike of 86 new cases between April 7-13 when majority of the cases related to attendees of the Tablighi Jamaat congregation were detected. The religious congregation attended by several thousand people was held in Delhi's Nizamuddin last month where a many were reported to have contracted the virus, apparently from foreign delegates.     

      Meanwhile on Tuesday, seven fresh cases were reported from some of Haryana's districts falling in the National Capital Region and the total number of coronavirus cases rose to 308 in the state.

While three fresh cases were reported from Jhajjar district which was coronavirus-free until Sunday, Sonipat reported two and Panipat one case, according to the state health department's daily bulletin.

Sonipat has the maximum number of active cases at 20 followed by Gurgaon (15) and Nuh (11).

The worst-affected districts of the state with maximum number of positive cases are Nuh (57), Gurgaon (51), Faridabad (46), Palwal (34), Sonipat (24) and Panchkula (18).

       The state health minister had on Sunday said many of the coronavirus positive patients in the NCR districts including Sonipat, Gurgaon and Faridabad had been found to have contracted infection from people in the national capital.

        There are now a total of 81 active COVID-19 patients in the state while the positive cases discharged after recovery so far are 224. The state has recorded three COVID-19-related deaths, the bulletin said.

As on Tuesday evening, the state further improved its recovery rate from 70.76 per cent to 72.72 per cent.

The fatality rate was 0.97 per cent, COVID-19 positive rate (proportion of positive cases to total tests conducted) was 1.34 per cent, rate of doubling of cases was 20 days, while tests per million being conducted were 979, as per the bulletin.

Among the 24 foreign nationals who tested positive, 14 were Italian tourists. Later 13 of them were discharged while one elderly woman in the group recently died even though she had recovered from coronavirus.

The other ten foreign nationals found positive are from Sri Lanka, Nepal, Thailand, South Africa and Indonesia while 64 patients in the state are from other states, as per the bulletin. PTI SUN VSD RDM

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