Tribune News Service

Patiala, May 19

The district has already started witnessing a dip in average daily cases of coronavirus. The daily positive count in the district has gone down to 500 over the past few days. Patient rush for hospitalisation has also declined.

The district today reported only 363 positive cases. Of 363 only 38 were contacts of the past positive patients while 325 were reported from elsewhere afresh.

The Patiala Civil Surgeon, Dr Satinder Singh, said, “Patiala city has reported 153 Covid cases, while Kauli 37, Rajpura 32, Bhadson 29, Shutrana 28 and Dudhan Sadhan 27 cases. Besides, 18 persons have contracted virus in Kallon Majra and 14 each in Samana and Nabha.”

With this, the total count of positive cases has risen to 43,542 since the outbreak of Covid last year. At present, the tally of active cases stands at 3,892. Besides, 16 people died of Covid over the past 24 hours taking the total death count to 1,061 since the emergence of virus last year.

Rural areas a cause of concern

The Health Department said there was a decline in number of positive cases. However, the rural areas were still a cause of concern, the department added. The department today declared a micro containment zone at Duladi village in Bhadson block of the district after 13 positive cases were reported from the area. With this, the number of containment zones in the rural areas has risen to five. Of these, two are macro containment zones wherein the entire village has to be sealed.

The Patiala Civil Surgeon, Dr Satinder Singh, said ASHA workers had already been asked for house to house survey in villages to identify symptomatic patients and test them. “Screening of villages has already started to curb the spread of virus in the rural areas. Besides, testing has also been ramped up in villages.”