E-Paper
Punjab’s 13 Covid-hit districts see no fresh case in a week
The development has come as a relief to the state government amid concerns over a relatively higher mortality rate of Covid-19 patients in Punjab
Thirteen of Punjab’s 19 coronavirus-hit districts have not reported even a single fresh case of the disease in the past one week.
Three districts of the state — Bathinda, Fazilka and Tarn Taran — have not reported any Covid-19 case till date.
The development has come as a relief to the state government amid concerns over a relatively higher mortality rate of Covid-19 patients in Punjab. The state’s mortality rate was double the national average till a few days back.
The 13 districts — Amritsar, Mansa, SBS Nagar, Hoshiarpur, Fatehgarh Sahib, Moga, Faridkot, Sangrur, Barnala, Rupnagar, Gurdaspur, Muktsar and Kapurthala — have added no case to their tally since April 14.
Fifty eight of a total of 251 cases in Punjab have been reported in these districts.
Also, the majority of them, barring Sangrur and Gurdaspur where cases appeared last on April 14, have had no case in the past 10 days.
The biggest relief came to SBS Nagar district which has 19 people found positive for the coronavirus, with no case since March 26.
Also, Mansa district, which reported 11 cases, has not added any since April 12. Amritsar, with 11 cases too, had the last patient found positive on April 9.
The state health and family welfare department claims to have done extensive testing in these districts as part of the contact tracing of those infected.
The department says 2,817 samples were collected in these districts till April 19. In Amritsar city, door-to-door surveys by medical teams were completed last week.
In past over one week, the state reported 67 cases, taking the total to 251 till Tuesday from 184 on April 14. Patiala witnessed the sharpest spike in the past one week from 2 cases to 31.
19% patients recover in state
The health department’s figures reveal that 11 more Covid-19 patients were discharged on Monday, taking the total number of persons having recovered to 39 (19.5%).
The state’s recovery rate is better than the national average (17.1%).
