Covid-19 positivity rate in Punjab has doubled, says health ministry as state’s tally crosses 2 lakh

Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said the daily average of Covid disease cases in Punjab was earlier at 531 and has now climbed to 1,338 in the last 15 days.

The Union health ministry pointed out on Wednesday that Punjab’s coronavirus disease (Covid-19) positivity rate has currently doubled to 6.8 per cent from 3.4 per cent previously, which reveals people are not adhering to the Covid-appropriate behaviour. Addressing a press conference, Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan compared the Punjab positivity rate with that of India and said, “The country’s cumulative positivity rate is 5 per cent while the weekly positivity is 3 per cent. This is a worrying situation as one state (Punjab) is seeing 6.8 per cent positivity while another state (Maharashtra) has 16 per cent positivity.”

Punjab has so far recorded over 2,00,000 Covid cases of which 6,137 people have died, 182,283 have recovered and active cases are at 11,942, according to the state’s health department bulletin. (HT file photo)

Bhushan said the daily average of Covid disease cases in Punjab was earlier at 531 and has now climbed to 1,338 in the last 15 days. The capital city of Chandigarh also saw its positivity rate increase from 3.5 per cent to 7 per cent and the daily average of cases have increased more than twice from 49 (on March 1) to 111(on March 15), he added. “Covid-19 tests in Chandigarh are coming up and going down and hence there is no distinct trend. We would want a distinct increasing trend of tests in which RT-PCR’s share is substantially higher than the present 40 per cent,” Bhushan said.

Punjab has so far recorded over 2,00,000 Covid disease cases of which 6,137 people have died, 182,283 have recovered and active cases are at 11,942, according to the state’s health department bulletin. On Tuesday, 1,475 fresh cases and 38 deaths were reported. On Monday, 1,843 cases were recorded - which was the highest in more than six months. Currently, nine districts in Punjab are observing night curfew from 11pm to 5am and the state’s education department has postponed board examinations for class 10 and 12 to May 4 and May 24, respectively.

As the overall situation in Punjab has been worsening for nearly a month, chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Wednesday appealed to the central government to review its immunisation strategy and vaccinate all age groups in selected areas of the state- where weekly testing shows a doubling of positivity rate, according to news agency PTI. Singh, who was a part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Covid-19 review meeting with all chief ministers, said the cases have been on the rise in Punjab due to people showing laxity in following Covid-appropriate behaviour.