Covid-19: August caseload makes Punjab's recovery rate India’s worst

CHANDIGARH: As India’s recovery rate charts an upward trend, the index in Punjab has slipped to lowest among the 20 worst-affected states in the country while the death rate has gone up, indicating the extent to which the disease has spread in the state.
For every 100 confirmed cases, 62.26 have recovered from the virus against the national average of 72. As on August16,19,431patients out of 31,206 tested positive for the virus recovered. Karnataka is slightly ahead of Punjab with a recovery rate of 62.34%. National capital Delhi has the highest recovery rate of 90.15% followed by neighbouring state of Haryana where 83.98% of patients have been cured. Tamil Nadu has a recovery rate of 82.31% and Gujarat 78.18%.

Punjab is witnessing a deluge of Covid-19 cases in the last couple of weeks. From August 9-16, a total of 7,303 fresh cases were reported from across the state while the recovery rate remained low with 4,112 infected people discharged from health facilities.
Barnala, the least populated district of the state, has the lowest recovery rate of 28% in the state. Out of 632 infected people, 440 are under treatment in the district. Patiala, home district of chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh, and Mohali have the second-lowest recovery rate of 49%. The recovery rate of Bathinda stands at 53% and Kapurthala 57%. Mansa and Faridkot have a recovery rate of 60% while in Jalandhar, Tarn Taran and Moga 61% of patients have recovered. In Ludhiana, the worst-affected district, 64% of the infected have been cured.
Punjab sero survey from next week
With 226 people succumbing to the virus in the last week, the rate of deaths per million population has gone from 19.5 to 27.1in seven days, inching closer to the rate of deaths per million population of 28.3. The constant rise in deaths has pushed mortality rate to 2.6 % against the national average of 1.9%.
Punjab health department spokesperson for Covid-19, Dr Rajesh Bhaskar said recovery rate had taken a dip due to an increase in caseload in recent weeks and will start improving next week.
For checking the spread of pandemic, the department will start a sero survey next week and will come up with a renewed strategy accordingly. For better planning and implementation for prevention and control of Covid-19, Punjab government is all set to conduct a sero survey to ascertain the spread of virus and accordingly prepare a strategy. The health experts are in talks to decide whether to conduct survey across the state or in the worst- hit districts. In a sero survey blood, samples of people are collected to ascertain spread of virus in selected population. A similar survey was conducted by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in four districts of the state in May.