The flu wave: 1 in 5 households in Haryana have 1 or more members who are currently down with flu-like symptoms

August 20, 2021, New Delhi: Many Haryana residents in the last 7 days have reported on LocalCircles that someone in their family is struggling with COVID- like symptoms i.e. fever, runny nose, fatigue etc. and some have been checking with the larger community about what was prevailing. Some are also getting a RT-PCR test done only to find later post doctor consultation that they are COVID negative and had gotten under the influence of some kind of viral infection or seasonal flu. The COVID-19 test positivity rate in Haryana is currently less than 0.10%. To understand the magnitude of the spread of this flu, LocalCircles has conducted a survey amongst residents of Haryana, which received close to 6,000 responses from residents across 16 districts of Haryana. 69% of the participants were men while 31% were women. 51% of respondents were from tier 1 districts, 28% from tier 2 and 21% respondents were from tier 3, 4 and rural districts.

The flu wave: 19% households in Haryana have 1 or more members who are currently down with flu-like symptoms

The question in the survey asked residents of Haryana about the number of individuals in their household currently with 1 or more flu symptoms like fever, runny now, cough, headache, body ache, etc. In response, 5% of Delhi’s residents said there are currently “4 or more individuals” with flu-like symptoms in their households. Another 5% said they have “2-3 individuals” with similar symptoms. 9% said there is only “1 individual” with the symptom. The majority of 81% of Haryana’s residents surveyed said no one in their household have flu-like symptoms. On an aggregate basis, 19% of Haryana households have 1 or more members who are currently down with flu-like symptoms. This question in the survey received 5,911 responses.

The findings of the survey indicate that 19% of Haryana households surveyed have 1 or more members who are currently down with flu-like symptoms. The findings also indicate that 10% of Haryana households are fully impacted with it, which means that all members are having such symptoms, while 9% have only 1 member so far and it is likely that more members may develop symptoms in the days to come. 81% of citizens have indicated that they do not have anyone in their households with the flu-like symptom, however, they are advised to take all precautions when using public transport, visiting public places and at workplace.

Within the state of Haryana, Gurugram and Faridabad reported the highest instances with 29% respondents from Gurugram claiming to have one or more person in the household impacted by it while 24% respondents from Faridabad claimed to have one or more in the family experiencing flu symptoms.

If the responses are compared across the states of Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, Delhi is currently seeing the highest impact of this flu with 41% households having one or more member having symptoms like headache, fever, runny nose, fatigue etc. while in Uttar Pradesh the prevalence is around 10%. However, the cities of both Haryana and Uttar Pradesh that are near Delhi are experiencing higher instances than those that are away from Delhi.

Survey Demographics

The survey conducted amongst residents of Haryana received close to 6,000 responses from residents across 16 districts of Haryana. 69% of the participants were men while 31% were women. 51% of respondents were from tier 1 districts, 28% from tier 2 and 21% respondents were from tier 3, 4 and rural districts. The survey was conducted via LocalCircles platform and all participants were validated citizens who had to be registered with LocalCircles to participate in this survey.