Ludhiana records lowest positivity rate of 0.11%

Nitin Jain

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, July 3

Ludhiana, which continues to remain the safest district in Punjab, has recorded lowest-ever positivity rate, a key indicator of virus surge, of 0.11 per cent on Friday when only 12 of the total 11,006 tested persons turned positive for Covid.

However, the hit rate went up slightly to 0.25 per cent on Saturday when 26 of the total 10,384 tests were reported positive here.

The safe trend has been persisting for the past almost a month when the district made a remarkable turnaround by recording the daily positivity rate even below 1 per cent.

The development holds significance as Ludhiana had earlier assumed the dubious distinction of being the worst-hit district with the maximum number of 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 with the health facilities unbearably falling short, oxygen supplies running low and many dying even without seeing a doctor, June gave a sigh of relief with the signs of gradual retreat and impact of deadly virus plateauing and the safe trend continues in July when the hit rate further dipped to as low as 0.11 per cent, which was lowest-ever, on Friday.

The data compiled by the Health and Family Welfare Department, a copy of which is with The Tribune, revealed that Ludhiana’s average daily Covid positivity rate remained second lowest at 0.4 per cent in the state last week. While the district’s average daily positivity rate was almost half than the state’s average of 0.7 per cent, it was six-times less than Mohali’s hit rate of 2.5 per cent, which continues to be highest in the state from June 22 to 28.

The safe state of Ludhiana continued in the current week as well with the district’s daily Covid positivity rate further dropping to 0.25 per cent on June 29, before plummeting to 0.15 per cent on June 30, 0.18 per cent on July 1, and touching a record low of 0.11 per cent on July 2.

Barring a single day when the positivity rate had crossed 1 per cent mark and touched 1.19 per cent on June 11, the number of Covid positive patients in the district had constantly been keeping below 1 per cent of the total tests conducted daily for the past almost a month, the data analysed by the district administration has showed.

The hit rate dipped below 1 per cent on June 8 when the district had reported 0.93 per cent virus positive cases and it further decreased to 0.84 per cent on June 9, slightly going up to 0.92 per cent on June 10, and again decreasing to 0.83 per cent on June 12.

Since June 13, the district’s daily positive rate has been continuously dropping from 0.97 per cent to 0.53 per cent on June 14, 0.62 per cent on June 15, 0.39 per cent on June 16, 0.6 per cent on June 17, 0.63 per cent on June 18, 0.43 per cent on June 19, 0.32 per cent on June 20, 0.2 per cent on June 21, 0.32 per cent on June 22, 0.45 per cent on June 23, 0.36 per cent on June 24, 0.4 per cent on June 25, 0.3 per cent on June 26 and 27, 0.39 per cent on June 28, 0.25 per cent on June 29, 0.15 per cent on June 30, 0.18 per cent on July 1 and record low of 0.11 per cent on July 2.

This U-turn was all the more significant as the daily positivity rate has dropped by a whopping 19.46 per cent from the highest-ever 19.57 per cent in past 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 and further rising and touching its peak of 19.57 per cent on May 2.

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