Punjab’s Covid death rate highest in country

Struggling hard to keep the virus spread under control, Punjab on Wednesday hit another grim milestone as it became the state with the highest death rate in the

Struggling hard to keep the virus spread under control, Punjab on Wednesday hit another grim milestone as it became the state with the highest death rate in the country.

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Punjab’s case fatality rate (2.95%) has surpassed that of Gujarat (2.93%) and Maharashtra (2.90%) --- the two worst-affected states ---- reveals the latest data.

Concerned over the high CFR, the Centre recently rushed a team of experts to Punjab. The team comprising PGIMER community medicine expert JS Thakur, and National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) deputy director Akshay Kumar is currently touring the worst-affected districts of Ludhiana, Amritsar, Patiala, Jalandhar and SAS Nagar (Mohali) to assess the ground situation. These five districts account for nearly 63% of the total deaths in in the state, with Ludhiana recording the highest number of fatalities.

The state has so far recorded 67, 547 total positive cases and 1,990 deaths. The Union government has already directed the worst-hit states to bring down their fatality rate to 1% by improving testing rate, contact-tracing and surveillance.

Punjab witnessed 1,067 deaths (around 263% jump) in August alone, and by the start of September, it had surpassed the CFR of the national capital.

State Covid nodal officer Dr Rajesh Bhaskar attributes the surge to co-morbidities and late-reporting of the cases.

“These two are the biggest challenges. If people don’t come forward for testing at the onset of symptoms, CFR will continue to go up. We need involvement of general public and community leaders to exhort people to go for testing,” he said.