Punjab: Spurt pushes death rate below national average

Neel Kamal | TNN | May 3, 2020, 15:23 IST

BATHINDA: The spike in positive cases in Punjab over the last three days has put its mortality rate below the national average for the first time since the Covid-19 outbreak in India. Mortality rate from among the total positive cases in Punjab has drastically fallen to 2.59% with 772 positive cases and 20 deaths. The national fatality rate on Saturday evening was 3.26% with 37,336 cases and 1,218 deaths. Mortality rate in the world is 7.02% from total positive cases of 34,21,671 and 2,40,316 deaths. A total of 10,93,091 persons have been cured, leaving 20,88,264 active cases.
In neighbouring Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, fatality rate continues to be much lower at 1.33% and 2.5%, respectively, with 376 total positive cases. Of the 40 Covid-19 positive patients in Haryana, five have died. In Himachal Pradesh, there has been only one death.
In the last three days, 397 positive cases have been reported in Punjab, which accounts for 51.42% of the total cases recorded in nearly one and a half months. Most of those who tested positive in these three days are those who returned from Takht Hazur Sahib in Maharashtra. On Saturday, a record 187 persons tested positive while in the previous two days, 105 each tested positive.
On April 10, mortality rate in Punjab was much higher than the national and world average. At the time, it was over 7.5% while the national rate was nearly 3% and world mortality rate was 6%. Punjab authorities attributed this to comorbidity..