Aparna Banerji

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, December 31

With the per day average not exceeding 30 to 40 cases for the past few days, the district has been able to avoid the much dreaded peak which was expected in December. With the Covid vaccine to be made available for the 12,500 registered health workers in the month of January, the Health Department and the district administration are asking people to expect a relative relief in the New Year as compared to the gloom of 2020.

While a peak was being predicted in December in the district after the initial increase in the number of cases, there was a gradual decrease in the number of Covid cases from the middle of December barring a few days when single-day Covid tally reached almost 100.

Dr TP Singh, Nodal Officer (Coronavirus), Jalandhar, said: “The best part is that the district saw no major surge in December even though it had been anticipated. The cases for the past week or so have remained between 30 and 40 new cases per day. With hectic contact tracing happening and no new surge in cases, we have a reason to be hopeful in 2021. So far, no untraceable case of people being reported with the new strain from Britain has been reported either. So we are keeping our fingers crossed. However, the only appeal in the midst of this hope is that people strictly continue to abide by Covid precautions.”

While 12,500 health workers from private and government health sectors have been registered to receive the Covid vaccine in its first phase, Dr TP Singh said the vaccine was due to be administered in the coming few weeks.

DC Ghanshyam Thori said, “The number of cases is very low these days at 1 per cent. This is the lowest infection rate in the district in the past eight to nine months. We are expecting the vaccine for 12,500 registered health workers in the first phase within January itself.

So far, no new patient of the new strain has been reported either in the state. Overall the disease is almost in check at present. We are constantly carrying out contact tracing despite which cases remain low. As long as people continue to take precautions, we hope the coming year will certainly be better in terms of Covid.”

2 die, 42 test positive

Jalandhar: The district reported two more Covid-19 fatalities on Thursday, taking the death toll to 642, while 42 new cases increased the infection tally to 19,926. The active cases in the district are 372, while 18,912 people have been discharged and 230 people are under home isolation. In Kapurthala, 10 people tested positive for Covid on Thursday.

Hoshiarpur reports 1 Covid death, 11 new cases

Hoshiarpur: The district reported one more Covid-19 fatality on Thursday, taking the death toll to 311, while 11 new cases pushed the infection tally to 7,730. Civil Surgeon Dr Jasvir Singh said with the receipt of 1,394 new samples from the people with suspected flu-like symptoms, the total number of samples taken in the district till date has become 2,34,419. As per the reports received from the lab, 2,26,138 are negative, while 2,158 waiting for the reports and 149 are invalid. The number of active cases is 103, while the number of patients who have recovered is 7,316. Dr Singh said on Thursday an 88-year-old woman of Chidial village died at the Civil Hospital Hoshiarpur. OC