Just 10 days into March & cases, deaths surpass entire February figures in Amritsar

Manmeet Gill

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, March 10

With the health authorities reporting 124 Covid-19 positive cases on Wednesday, the district witnessed a total of 707 cases in the first 10 days of March.

The authorities reported two deaths today. The deceased have been identified as Tarlok Singh, a 35-year-old from Rayya, and Amarjit Singh, a 45-year-old from Khanpur village, near Baba Bakala. With this, the death toll reached 15 in March itself.

In comparison, the district had reported 583 cases and 12 deaths in February. The figures clearly indicate that the situation has worsened in the district. With a total of 16,439 positive cases and 610 deaths, the district has a mortality rate of 3.71 per cent to date.

Meanwhile, in the ongoing vaccination drive, a total of 32,043 persons received their first dose, while 5,630 got the second shot. A total of 8,825 persons (senior citizens and those above 45 years) have been administered the dose. On Wednesday 1,207 senior citizens turned up for the vaccination.

The health authorities said 12,153 (48.7 per cent of the total) healthcare workers and 11,065 (48.3 per cent) frontline workers have been administered the first dose.

Officials said a total of 2,535 persons received the vaccination at 15 government centers and 32 private centres.

36 fresh cases reported in various district schools

On Wednesday, 36 fresh cases were reported from different schools in the district. Among new cases, 25 were students, 10 teachers and one non-teaching staff.

Theses cases were reported from several government schools in Lopoke, Tarsika, Verka, Ramdass, Chawinda Kala, Mustafabad and a few private schools in the city. While the Education Department and the Health Department are following several SOPs, including closure of schools from where cases have been reported for 48 hours, cases being reported from schools are on the rise. At present, several schools are conducting annual exams through offline mode for senior classes.