District witnesses considerable dip in daily Covid positivity rate

Nitin Jain

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, May 18

In another sign of gradual retreat and plateauing of the impact of devastating second Covid wave, the daily positivity rate, a key indicator of virus surge, has also dipped considerably in Ludhiana district last week after touching an all-time high of 13.1 per cent here in the first week of May.

The state’s worst-hit district recorded an average positivity rate of 11.7 per cent between May 9 and 15, which was much lower than the state’s Covid surge rate of 13.1 per cent registered during this period.

The data compiled by the Health and Family Welfare Department, a copy of which is with The Tribune, revealed that while Ludhiana’s positivity rate came down by 1.4 notches as compared to 13.1 per cent recorded between April 30 and May 6, that of Punjab went up by the same ratio (1.4 per cent) from 11.7 per cent registered between April 30 and May 6.

The district’s positivity rate had earlier gone up from 12 per cent between April 25 and May 1 to 13.1 per cent between April 30 and May 6, while the state’s rate had remained static at 11.7 per cent between April 25 and May 6.

With the decreasing caseload, Ludhiana has turned out to be in a better situation than 11 other districts, which have the higher positivity rate.

The situation has improved after turning grimmer when Ludhiana district’s average daily positivity rate had registered an increase of 3.1 per cent in less than 10 last days of April. The positivity rate here, which was on the constant rise since April 26 when it was 10 per cent (between April 20 and 26), had shot up to 11.1 per cent between April 23 and 29, before touching its peak at 13.1 per cent between April 30 and May 6, has finally started receding from May 9. Earlier, the positivity rate

had dipped between April 15 and 21.

However, Mohali continued to lead the state with the highest positivity rate of 22.9 per cent between May 9 and 15, which was 2 notches less than 24.9 per cent recorded there between April 30 and May 6, followed by Bathinda which went up to 20.5 per cent from 17.3 per cent, and Mansa that registered a steep rise from 13.8 per cent to 20.5 per cent.

The districts that were showing higher positivity rate than Ludhiana included Fazilka 18.7 per cent, Ferozepur 16.3, Muktsar 15.7, Faridkot 15.6, Ropar 15.3, Patiala 13.7, Jalandhar and Pathankot 13.3 per cent each.

Those faring better than Ludhiana were Amritsar with 11.5 per cent positivity rate, Moga 10.2, Barnala 9.6, Hoshiarpur 9.5, Kapurthala 7.9, Gurdaspur 7.8, Sangrur and Fatehgarh Sahib 7.6 per cent each, Tarn Taran 6.4 and Nawanshahr recorded the lowest positivity average of 5.2 per cent in the state.

In contrast to Ludhiana district’s decreasing trend, the state’s positivity rate had risen from 9.8 per cent between April 16 and 22 to 13.1 per cent between May 9 and 15. Earlier, Punjab’s positivity average had come down from 12 per cent between April 23 and 29 to 11.7 per cent between April 30 and May 6. Before that, the state’s Covid surge had risen from 7.2 per cent between April 2 and 8 to 9.5 between April 9 and 15 and 9.8 per cent between April 16 and 22.

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