E-Paper
5 districts record two-thirds of Punjab’s total dengue count
Bathinda leads the dengue tally among all Punjab districts at 1,479 cases, followed by Mohali, Hoshiarpur and Amritsar
The dengue outbreak in Punjab is concentrated in Bathinda, Mohali, Hoshiarpur, Amritsar, Pathankot as 65% of the total cases in the state so far have been reported in these five districts.
Such is the situation that the case count in some of the districts is nearly four-fold of the last year’s figure.
Hoshiarpur registered the maximum spurt as cases (till October 18) reached 1,112 as compared to a total of 298 last year. Bathinda is leading the overall tally as the district reached 1,479 cases till Monday as compared 576 on the corresponding date last year.
The state registered 9,047 cases of dengue against last year’s 8,435 cases.
Ludhiana, Punjab’s industrial hub, is the only large district in the state that registered less count this year with 410 cases against last year’s 1,355.
The district topped the list in 2020 with 1,355 cases of dengue.
Moga and Mansa are other districts where the caseload is low at 16 and 34.
Chief secretary holds emergency meeting
Chief secretary Anirudh Tewari on Tuesday chaired an emergency meeting of various department heads in view of the rising cases of dengue.
The local bodies, and the panchayati raj departments were asked to focus on fogging for which the finance department has been asked to purchase machines from emergency funds, it is learnt.
On Monday, deputy chief minister OP Soni, who holds the health portfolio, had also chaired a meeting.
Director (health and family welfare) Dr Andesh Kang refused to admit that the situation was going out of hand. She said, “The government is making out all efforts manage the outbreak. The good part is that cases have started decreasing in the past few days.”
She dismissed reports of a new breed of mosquito as the reason behind the spurt in dengue cases.
“Nothing of that sort has been found in our studies so far. A longer spell of rain and humidity are also the reason behind breeding of mosquitoes this year,” she said.
