Super-spreader events led to Covid spike in Punjab: Govt

Nitin Jain

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, March 9

At a wedding function of a family from Amritsar in Delhi, 20 members turned Covid-positive out of 35 tested. At a Ludhiana school, 45 were found infected out of 750 tested. At a funeral in Mohali, eight members of a family turned positive out of 15 tested.

These were some of the super-spreader events that led to a spike in Covid cases in Punjab, which is among the six states accounting for over 86 per cent of the total caseload in the country for the past few days, the government has confirmed.

109-yr-old gets jab

Abohar: Har Kaur (109) was among 6,496 elderly persons who were inoculated at 85 centres in Sriganganagar district on Monday. She was administered the first dose of the Covid vaccine at the Public Health Centre, Banda Colony. — OC

The gatherings at wedding parties, schools, offices, banks, funerals and containment zones are among the major contributors behind the spread of the infection in the state, information compiled by the state Health Department has revealed. Another major contributor to the caseload is the population above 50 years, which accounted for maximum 31.4 per cent of the total positive cases reported between February 22 and 28. The second most vulnerable is the 26-40 age group that showed 25.5 per cent infections in the last week of February. The safest age group is less than five years that recorded only 0.5 per cent cases while children in the 5-14 age group reported 5.6 per cent infections, 15 to 20 years 12 per cent and those between 21 and 25 years of age showed 6.8 per cent cases between February 22 and 28.

Ludhiana was among the nine districts in the state reporting a high incidence of Covid, figures revealed.

While Jalandhar recorded maximum 684 Covid cases with 3.48 per cent positivity rate, Nawanshahr stood second with 625 infections and 8.96 per cent positivity rate in the week between February 26 and March 4. The state Health Department foresees a sharp spurt in Covid cases in this month. “With the current growth rate, the total cases in the state will touch 40,000-mark by the end of March,” said Principal Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, Hussan Lal, adding that the daily cases would double to 2,000 by March 15 and three times to 3,000 per day by March 22. He said the department was fully equipped to tackle the situation.

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