10 new high-load Covid cities added to Himachal list

Pratibha Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, July 13

With sharp increase in the number of coronavirus cases, the Himachal Government today added 10 more cities to the list of high load infected cities and districts for Covid-19 to prevent spread of coronavirus.

The new areas which have been added are Surat (Gujarat), Palghar, Raigad and Nashik (all Maharashtra), Aurangabad (Bihar), Thiruvallur (Tamil Nadu), Ranga Reddy (Telengana), Madurai (Tamil Nadu) and Faridabad (Haryana) and Bengaluru (Urban). All entrants into Himachal from these 10 new places will have to undergo institutional quarantine or paid quarantine to prevent community transmission.

The earlier list issued on June 12 last month had 13 cities while the new revised list has 20 cities and districts. In the revision, the cities of Jaipur, Jodhpur (Rajasthan) and Indore in Madhya Pradesh have been excluded from the list in view of the reduction in number of Covid cases. There has been a steady increase in the number of cases in Himachal, especially Solan district which houses the industrial hub of Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh. Several positive cases have been detected among the industrial workers, a majority of whom belong to places outside Himachal.

Moreover, opening of the borders of the state on July 6 has been a cause of major concern as tourists with scant respect for guidelines have been caught entering the state by submitting fake covid negative reports, hotel bookings and incomplete documents. A petition has been filed in the high court challenging the government’s decision to allow anyone to enter with certain conditions. The matter will come up for hearing on July 20.

Meanwhile, the recovery rate in Himachal has improved to 76.09 per cent as compared to the national rate of 63.01 per cent. Similarly, even with regard to mortality rate there is some solace for Himachal as this figure stands at 0.80 per cent against 2.3 at the national level.

With a relatively smaller population as compared to bigger states like UP or Maharashtra, Himachal has tested 13,610 persons per million. This figure at the national level stands at 8,271.

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