Punjab past Covid-19 peak as daily case count comes down amid high testing

Punjab appears to have passed its Covid-19 peak as it has been witnessing a decline in daily addition of fresh cases in October even as the state health department

Punjab appears to have passed its Covid-19 peak as it has been witnessing a decline in daily addition of fresh cases in October even as the state health department maintained maximum testing capacity.

Friday’s tally of 743 fresh cases is the lowest single-day addition in the state in the past 50 days even as the total number of samples collected the same day was 30,679.

Since October 1, the state has added 8,573 fresh cases at a daily average of 952 cases against an average of 2,000 cases a day in September. In August, 37,873 cases were recorded at a daily average of 1,221.

The state so far has reported 1,22,459 cases of infection.

The health department officials involved in the pandemic management say it can be inferred that the coronavirus spiral is weakening in the state since there was a sharp decline in fresh cases despite high testing.

“The trend across the world shows that cases have fallen after reaching their peak. Generally, the virus weakens after hitting the peak. The same appears to have happened in Punjab. Our calculations suggest that by November, the daily addition of cases will go down further,” said state Covid-19 nodal officer Dr Rajesh Bhaskar.

With a total of 367 deaths so far, the state has also witnessed a decline in daily addition of fatalities. However, Punjab’s case fatality rate (CFR) continues to be the highest in the county at 3.07%.

Can the state witness

second peak?

The state nodal officer said a second peak of the coronavirus cannot be ruled out in Punjab as of states like Delhi, Maharashtra and Kerala witnessed surge in cases even after seeing decline for a while.

“Scientists across the world have concluded that coronavirus will not be over until it is over. In many countries like the United Kingdom and the United States, cases jumped in the second wave. If such a scenario arises, we may see the second peak by November-end,” Dr Bhaskar said.

Another senior official said the health department has started making arrangements to check such possibility.

Plans are afoot to convert rural dispensaries into Covid clinics besides giving charge of testing to sarpanches amid a special campaign for wearing masks, he added.