By OUR STAFF REPORTER
DEHRADUN, 16 May: With large number of Uttarakhand migrants returning to the state, many new cases of Corona positive are now being detected every day. Today 9 cases of Corona were reported in the state, with four of them being from Dehradun. With the nine new cases, the total number of Corona cases in the state has gone up to 91 now, though 51 of them have been treated and cured too. This leaves the number of still active cases in the state at 39 now.
Today of the four testing positive in Dehradun, 3 are male while one is a 32 year old female. The males are aged, 10, 15 and 49 years. Their samples were tested at Doon Medical College. While four other cases have been reported from district Udham Singh Nagar and they had travel history from Maharashtra and Gurugram. Two of them are 18 year old males while one is 43 and the other one is 23 year old male and their samples were tested at Sushila Tiwari Medical College Haldwani, two of them were reported from Jaspur. In addition one positive report was received in respect of District Nainital. All the cases reported from Kumaon region were tested at Haldwani Lab.
It is now taking on average 18.82 days for cases to double, which should be major cause of concern for the authorities as the period of doubling of cases has got reduced significantly over past few days. What also is significant to note is the fact that the testing has not gathered adequate pace in commensuration with much larger intra-state and inter-state movement of people over past few days. Just to mention the figures only 11,081 samples have been tested at various government virology labs in Uttarakhand. In addition, 800 odd samples have been tested so far at the private laboratories in the state. With the lockdown restrictions easing during the third phase of the lockdown and likely to ease further during the upcoming fourth phase of the lockdown, it is imperative to increase the testing in the state since over 2.5 lakhs of Uttarakhandis are expected to return to the state in coming days. Mere thermal screening is not adequate at all.
