Ludhiana saw over 48% of all Covid cases in last 15 days of Aug

Ludhiana: Of the all the Covid-19 cases reported in Ludhiana district so far, nearly 48.5% surfaced in the second fortnight of August only, which is highest for any district in the state for the given period. The district also witnessed the highest number of fatalities in the last seven days.
According to the state health department’s media bulletin released on Tuesday evening, Ludhiana recorded 5,300 new cases in the last fortnight. No other district witnessed such a high number of cases in that duration, with Patiala, Jalandhar and SAS Nagar recording 2,533, 2,372 and 2,125 cases, respectively.
The data for the last two days — August 31 and September 1 — also suggested that the district saw the steepest spike in cases, adding 678 patients, whereas 379, 344 and 271 fresh Covid cases surfaced in SAS Nagar, Jalandhar and Patiala districts, respectively.
The data for Ludhiana district for the last few months puts the count of cases during the August 3-16 fortnight at 4,482, while it was 2,239 in the July 20-August 3 period. Between July 6 and July 19, 939 cases emerged, while 540 were recorded in the fortnight of June 22-July 5. At 44, the number of such cases was lowest during the May 11-24 period.
The latest bulletin also suggests that Ludhiana witnessed the highest number of fatalities in the last seven days, when as many as 91 patients succumbed to the virus infection, while 426 persons had lost the battle to Covid-19 in the district till Tuesday evening. Patiala, Amritsar and Jalandhar recorded 38, 36 and 27 deaths, respectively, during the same period.
Given the high number of cases as well as deaths in the district recently, the health department officials said they are making all-out efforts to rein in both.
Although the civil surgeon could not be contacted for his reaction on the recent data, preferring anonymity, a health department officer said the department has increased testing and doing extensive contact tracing of positive cases, apart from creating awareness among the residents to follow the Covid safety protocols, including wearing face masks, and maintaining social distancing and hand hygiene. One major reason for the high death count is that despite clear symptoms of coronavirus infection, people come to them late, he pointed out.
BOX
PROGRESSION OF CASES
Fortnight — Increase
April 27 to May 10 — 117
May 11 to May 24 — 44
May 25 to June 7 — 86
June 8 to June — 315
June 22 to July 5 — 540
July 6 to July 19 — 939
July 20 to Aug 2 — 2,239
Aug 3 to Aug 16 — 4,482
Aug 17 to Aug 30 — 5,300