In the past seven days from March 16 to 22, Punjab added 15,836 Covid cases to its tally taking the total of active cases to 18,626 and 284 people died due to Covid in Punjab in one week. Express Photo: Kamleshwar Singh Battling a second wave of infections, Punjab is lagging far behind compared to Maharashtra and national figures as recovery rate in concerned. On the other hand, state’s case fatality rate (CFR) is higher than Maharashtra and national average.
As per the Punjab Covid Response report which is compiled by the Department of Governance Reforms, government of Punjab, as on March 22, state had a recovery rate of 88.4% and case fatality rate (CFR) at 3% with 18,628 active cases. Maharashtra, which is having the highest 2.15 lakh active Covid cases, has recovery rate of 89.2% and CFR of 2.1%.
ationally, the country’s recovery rate is 95.7% and CFR average is 1.4%.
In the past seven days from March 16 to 22, Punjab added 15,836 Covid cases to its tally taking the total of active cases to 18,626 and 284 people died due to Covid in Punjab in one week. Among districts, while Jalandhar added maximum new cases (2,200) in one week and reported 55 Covid deaths (CFR 3.1%), district Hoshiarpur had the CFR of 3.7% with 50 deaths and 1,807 new cases.
The report reveals that the positivity rate in Punjab increased from 6.6% on March 8 to 8.8% on March 21 (RT-PCR plus antigen testing).
As on March 21, Punjab had conducted 1.86 lakh tests per million population, more than the national average of 1.73 lakh tests per million population, and better than states such as Jharkhand (1.55 lakh), Maharashtra (1.49 lakh), Uttar Pradesh (1.47 lakh), West Bengal (92,357), Rajasthan (85,206) and Madhya Pradesh (73,977). However, states such as Delhi, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Odisha, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Gujarat are conducting more tests per million population than Punjab.
The highest 3.13 lakh tests per million population were conducted from Jalandhar and the lowest 98,844 from Fazilka.
For the 13,435 new cases reported in last 7 days in Punjab, 1,86,454 contacts were traced.
As on March 21, the maximum 57,500 tests were conducted at the lab of Government Medical College and Hospital, Patiala followed by GMCH Amritsar (45,495), GGSMCH Faridkot (33,526) and GADVASU lab (11,511). A total of 24,122 tests were also conducted in private labs.
Of total 18,628 active cases in state, majority 12,219 are in home isolation, 1229 are admitted in level-2 facilities and 175 in level-3 facilities. 14.8% level-2 facilities and 11% level-3 facilities are occupied in Punjab.
As per the vaccination data compiled till March 22, Ludhiana is leading in the state in achieving its vaccination target while Mansa is at the bottom of the list. Of 102 cases of Adverse Events Following Immunisation (AEFI) that were reported in Punjab, 80 were minor, 14 severe and 8 serious.