As per official media bulletin, there were 340 new cases in the state on Tuesday, driving up the total tally of persons testing positive for novel coronavirus infection to 8,511.

Even though Punjab has ramped up its Covid-19 testing per million population by nearly 185 times from April 10 to July 12, the state’s recovery rate in this period has fallen to 68 per cent from around 90 per cent in May, when it was the highest in the country.

Delhi with per million testing of 39,493 has a recovery rate of 80 per cent, while it is 74 per cent in Rajasthan that is carrying out 13,458 tests per million. Till July 12, as per Punjab Covid Status report based on ICMR and Punjab Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme, the state was testing 13,087 persons per million and its recovery rate stood at 68 per cent.

There has been a steady increase in the number of persons testing positive in the last fortnight. From May 11 to May 24, there were 221 new cases, which increased to 602 between May 25 and June 7 and further to 1382 between June 8 and June 21. In the last fortnight, as per the official data, there was a sharp spike in fresh cases with 2,519 new infections reported between June 22 and July 5, nearly double the cases in the previous fortnight. With 357 fresh cases, Monday witnessed the biggest single day spike since the outbreak.

The state registered another spike Tuesday, with 340 new infections driving up the tally of those testing positive for novel coronavirus to 8511. Those tested positive include Cabinet minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa and former Bishop of Jalandhar Diocese Franco Mulakkal, who is accused of raping a nun and faces arrest after a court in Kerala’s Kottayam on Monday cancelled the bail granted to him for failing to appear for the trial in the case.

As per official media bulletin, there were 340 new cases in the state on Tuesday, driving up the total tally of persons testing positive for novel coronavirus infection to 8511.

Punjab’s nodal officer for Covid-19 Dr Rajesh Bhaskar blamed the surge in new cases for the decline in recovery rate. “The new patients will take some days to recover,” said Dr Bhaskar, adding that critically ill patients take two to three weeks to recover.

Punjab’s recovery rate is however better than two states with higher per million testing rate. These are Andhra Pradesh (221,89) and Tamil Nadu (21,177) which have a recovery rate of 53 per cent and 65 per cent, respectively.

Haryana which, as of July 12 had testing rate of 12,660 per million, had a better recovery rate at 76 per cent.

Other States such as Gujarat (70 per cent recovery), Madhya Pradesh (73 per cent) and Bihar (71 percent) also have better recovery rates even though they have lesser tests per million than Punjab.