Ludhiana district safest with lowest positivity rate of 0.1 per cent

Nitin Jain

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, July 24

Ludhiana, which had made a remarkable turnaround from being the worst-hit to the safest district in the state, continues to remain safe with the lowest Covid positivity rate, a key indicator of virus surge recorded in Punjab, the government has confirmed.

The district, with a population of over 3.5 million, continues to top the state with an average hit rate of 0.1 per cent in the past week, which was one third than the state’s average positivity rate of 0.3 per cent between July 13 and 19, official figures have revealed.

This is half than the earlier record low of 0.2 per cent positivity rate registered in the district between July 2 and 8, when the state’s average hit rate was 0.4 per cent.

The development holds significance as Ludhiana had earlier assumed the dubious distinction of being the worst-hit district with maximum daily Covid cases and deaths till May.

If it was mayhem in May when the second Covid wave had rapidly slid into a devastating crisis, June had given a sigh of relief with signs of gradual retreat and impact of deadly virus plateauing. The safe trend continues in July when the hit rate further dipped to as low as 0.1 per cent, which was lowest-ever, last week.

This U-turn was all the more significant as the daily positivity rate has dropped by a whopping 19.56 per cent from the highest-ever ratio of 19.57 per cent in the past almost two months. The district had touched its peak of virus surge on May 2.

The daily hit rate has been plummeting constantly since the last week of May.

Ludhiana’s positivity rate had started at a high of 18.92 per cent on the first day of May, further rising and touching its peak of 19.57 per cent on May 2.

The data analysed by the Health and Family Welfare Department, a copy of which is with The Tribune, showed that Bathinda has emerged a new hotspot in the state with the highest positivity rate of 1.2 per cent, followed by Ferozepur, which stood second worst with 1 per cent hit rate between July 13 and 19. Rest all 20 districts recorded positivity rate of 0.5 per cent or below.

These included Faridkot, Fazilka and Mansa 0.5 per cent each, Mohali 0.4 per cent, Moga, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala, Amritsar and Jalandhar 0.3 per cent each, Pathankot, Fatehgarh Sahib, Barnala, Muktsar and Gurdaspur 0.2 per cent each, Patiala, Ropar, Sangrur, Nawanshahr and Tarn Taran shared the top position with Ludhiana by recording the lowest of 0.1 per cent positivity rate.

The compilation of average positivity rate in June had also put Ludhiana as the safest district with the lowest figure of 0.8 per cent virus cases, which were 55.55 per cent less than the state’s average cases of 1.8 per cent from June 1 to 30.

In June, Mohali had remained the worst-hit district with the state’s highest hit rate of 4.6 per cent, followed by Ferozepur 4 per cent, Fazilka 3.5, Bathinda 3.3, Mansa 2.8, Moga 2.5, Ropar and Hoshiarpur 2.3 each, Faridkot 2.2, Amritsar 2, Barnala and Patiala 1.9 each, Pathankot 1.8, Muktsar 1.7, Kapurthala 1.6, Jalandhar and Fatehgarh Sahib 1.5 each, Tarn Taran 1.4, Sangrur and Gurdaspur 1.1 each and Nawanshahr registered the second lowest positivity rate of 0.9 per cent last month.

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