Thickly populated industrial districts keep Punjab on tenterhooks

CHANDIGARH: Even as there has been a constant surge in number of Covid-19 cases in Punjab, the outbreak has largely been concentrated among the big districts of the state having large urban population, keeping the government on tenterhooks.
The five districts — Ludhiana, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Patiala and Sangrur — account for 61.6% of total cases and 71.6% of deaths, according to data of the health department.
The high number of cases in these districts are primarily because of high density of population, heavy movement of people in the manufacturing clusters producing hosiery, auto parts, small tools, apparel products, sports and leather products. High rate of testing in these districts is also seen as a reason for high detection volume of cases.
The trend picked up pace since Unlock 1.0 commencing from June 1. The growth rate of cases in the state from June 1 to June 4 ranged between 1% to 6% against the national growth rate of 3-4%.
Sample this: From June 28 to July 7, a total of 1,053 cases were added to the overall tally, of which 742 (70.46%) were from these five districts, which also accounted for 67.64% of deaths recorded during these seven days.
Ludhiana, the industrial hub and most populated district of the state, reported 275 cases in one-week period followed by Sangrur where 164 people were found to be positive for Covid-19. As many as 148 cases surfaced in Jalandhar, 79 in Patiala and 76 in Amritsar during the same period. Amritsar accounted for 10 deaths out of total 34 in the past one week, while five people succumbed to the pandemic in Ludhiana. Four infected people in Patiala and two people each Sangrur and Jalandhar died.
In Ludhiana, around 80% of the infected people were residing in urban areas while the number of such people in Jalandhar stood at around 70%.
To contain the spread of virus, the health department has identified high priority zones — clusters, micro containment zones and large outbreak zones — across the state, and not surprisingly majority of them are in these five districts. Of 150 high priority areas, 110 are in these districts.
Spokesperson of Punjab health department for Covid-19, Dr Rajesh Bhaskar, said besides being densely populated, these districts also witnessed heavy movement of people which make transmission of infection easy. He, however, said that the government was taking every required measure to contain the spread in these districts. Testing in these districts had been high as compared to other parts of the state, he added.
Till July 4, 1,65,964 people — migrants and locals stranded in other parts of the country and aboard — entered Punjab of which 51,460 were tested and 1,029 were found positive. Of the total, 32,129 people entered Ludhiana, 18,198 Jalandhar, 14,359 Amritsar and 9,188 Patiala. As on June 3, as many as 39,335 people were tested in Ludhiana, highest in the state, followed by Amritsar were 25,506 people have been tested for the virus so far. In Patiala, 23,879 tests have been conducted and 23,979 in Jalandhar.