Five dead; 1,283 test +ve for Covid in Ludhiana district

Tribune News Service

Nitin Jain

Ludhiana, January 15

Ludhiana has once again turned out to be the worst-hit district in Punjab with the Covid positivity rate, a key indicator of virus surge, and daily virus cases touching an all-time high and breaking all previous records created during the past two deadly waves, the government has confirmed.

Officialspeak

We have ramped up the testing and strengthened the health facilities, both in government and private sector, to provide best possible facilities to the patients. Besides, the awareness and enforcement of Covid-appropriate behaviour are also in progress. Varinder Kumar Sharma, Deputy Commissioner

With the record high hit rate of over 43 per cent and daily Covid cases breaching the 1,800-mark, the situation in the state’s financial capital has started turning grim, the official figures have revealed.

On Friday, Ludhiana reported 1,808 fresh virus cases, seven Covid deaths and a positivity rate of 43.17 per cent. The numbers were even higher when it came to the total figure reported in the district yesterday. There were 2,007 fresh cases, including 199 outsiders, and nine deaths, including two outsiders.

Friday’s hit rate, recorded by the district Health Department, was 29.02 per cent, which was calculated taking in consideration 6,230 tests conducted yesterday. However, the state Health Department’s figure was 43.17 per cent, which was based on 4,188 test reports received on that day.

This was way ahead than the previous record of a maximum of 1,729 cases recorded here on May 9 last year and the highest-ever hit rate of 33.86 per cent registered in Ludhiana on August 10, 2020.

However, the count of highly transmissible Omicron variant is still under control as only five such cases have been reported in the district so far.

Another sigh of relief is the casualty rate, which also remained under control this time as Ludhiana had reported up to 30 daily Covid deaths in the second wave on two consecutive days — May 10 and 11 last year.

The daily cases and hit rate have been witnessing an unprecedented surge for the past fortnight.

The 24-hour virus case count has went up from 37 on January 1 to 40 on January 2, 56 on January 3, 103 on January 4, 203 on January 5, 292 on January 6, 324 on January 7, 561 on January 8, 509 on January 9, 806 on January 10, 678 on January 11, 724 on January 12, 670 on January 13, and a three-fold rise to reach 1,808 on January 14. However, Saturday saw a bit of relief with the figure coming down to 1,409, including 1,283 locals and 126 outsiders.

Similarly, the positivity rate, as per the district figures, has gone up from mere 1.37 per cent on January 1 to 1.55 per cent on January 2, 3.4 per cent on January 3, 3.46 per cent on January 4, 6.99 per cent on January 5, 8.69 per cent on January 6, 9.13 per cent on January 7, 15.48 per cent on January 8, 10.6 per cent on January 9, 24.88 per cent on January 10, 11.4 per cent on January 11, 11.15 per cent on January 12, 10.15 per cent on January 13, a three-fold rise to touch 29.02 per cent on January 14, and 20.93 per cent on January 15.

Ludhiana’s hit rate of 43.17 per cent, as per the state figures, on Friday was second highest in the state after the highest of 43.35 per cent recorded in Bathinda and more than double than the state average of 21.19 per cent.

Among other districts, Mohali on Friday registered positivity rate of 34.99 per cent, Jalandhar 25.44 per cent, Patiala 33.42 per cent, Hoshiarpur 29.52 per cent, Amritsar 14.94 per cent, Gurdaspur 7.27 per cent, Pathankot 13.18 per cent, Kapurthala 13.13 per cent, Ropar 28.15 per cent, Fatehgarh Sahib 15.06 per cent, Nawanshahr 11.53 per cent, Tarn Taran 8.66 per cent, Mansa 27.3 per cent, Muktsar 5.66 per cent, Moga 4.69 per cent, Sangrur 8.29 per cent, Fazilka 9.86 per cent, Faridkot 4.78 per cent, Ferozepur 12.5 per cent and Barnala had recorded hit rate of 12.57 per cent.

However, the daily death figure remained under control and reported no casualty on January 1, 4, 5, 7 and 8, while single death was recorded on January 2, 3, 6, 9, 11, 12 and 13. There were three Covid deaths in Ludhiana on January 10, seven persons died of the virus on January 14 and five on January 15.

Today, the deceased belonging to the district were four men and one woman. All were admitted to various hospitals and were residents of Salem Tabri, Khanna, Dhandari Kalan, Tagore Nagar and Chandiagrh Road.

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