Ruchika M. Khanna
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, October 2
Punjab’s case fatality rate (CFR) is now twice that of the country, the state’s bulletin showed on Friday.
The COVID bulletin showed that Punjab’s CFR on Friday peaked to 3, as against the country’s CFR of 1.6 per cent---a development that came even as the number of new positive cases dropped to 1,071 on Friday.
As many as 50 people have succumbed to the contagion in the past 24 hours and 3,501 persons have died in Punjab since the state reported its first COVID death in March.
The high CFR in the state is giving jitters to the health authorities, especially considering that CFR is falling across India and globally.
Districts like Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar are reporting a CFR of almost 4 per cent. Eight deaths were reported in Amritsar on Friday, and six in Ludhiana and Gurdaspur---a place that emerging as a new hotspot.
Dr Rajiv Bhaskar, state nodal Officer for COVID-19, told The Tribune that the main reasons for the continuous increase in CFR was the high incidence of comorbidities in the state population, and the late testing of positive cases.
“There is high incidence of diabetes, coronary ailments and obesity in Punjab’s population. Also, people are arriving for testing late, after the infection has reached a late stage. We are actively encouraging home isolation to ensure that people have no fear of being isolated in institutional treatment and get themselves tested as soon as they show symptoms. We are hopeful of the CFR falling fast,” he said.
Punjab has also been criticised for low testing. The number of tests done per day is just 30,000, and the state's positivity rate is 6.2 per cent. The positivity rate is higher in the state, as compared to other states like Bihar (2.5 per cent) and Jharkhand (3.7 per cent), where similar levels of testing are being undertaken.
District Cases Deaths
Ludhiana 18203 750
Jalandhar 13219 396
Amritsar 10278 371
Patiala 11725 328
Sangrur 3599 150
Mohali 10648 192
Hoshiarpur 4647 164
Gurdaspur 6073 154
Ferozepur 3815 103
Pathankot 3765 80
Tarn Taran 1676 68
Bathinda 5976 117
Fatehgarh Sahib 1938 86
Moga 2270 72
Nawanshahr 1660 50
Faridkot 2782 45
Fazilka 2460 37
Kapurthala 3347 143
Ropar 2142 78
Muktsar 2547 44
Barnala 1850 43
Mansa 1594 30
Total. 1,16,213 3,501
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