Punjab’s Covid death toll in May over twofold than April
Ludhiana worst-hit district with 624 deaths, followed by Bathinda; maximum single-day casualties recorded on May 21
CHANDIGARH: Punjab recorded more than twofold increase in Covid-19 deaths in May as compared to the previous month with an average 178 fatalities a day.
As many as 5,528 patients succumbed to the virus in the state in May against 2,154 in April. Besides, May contributed 38% to the state’s total fatalities so far.
The state also heaved a big sigh of relief as the number of daily fresh infections came down from a record 9,200 to 2,253 the same month.
Among the districts, Ludhiana was the worst-hit in May at 624 deaths, followed by Bathinda at 550. The maximum 202 single-day deaths were registered on May 21. “The trend is reversing now as the daily addition of cases has come to around 2,000 a day,” said state Covid-19 nodal officer Dr Rajesh Bhaskar.
A prolonged wave in state
Experts believe that the second wave lasted longer in Punjab than Delhi and Maharashtra.
The national capital and Maharashtra-registered their pandemic peak for a shorter period. “This was primarily due to the fact that we didn’t decrease our testing despite shortfall in the daily addition of cases. More testing means more positivity rate. The good thing is despite high testing our positivity rate has decreased to less than 3%,” said the nodal officer.
More cases in rural areas
In May, the state also registered more cases in rural areas that contributed 35% of the caseload in May-end from 27% in April. Dr Rajesh Bhaskar also attributed it to intensive testing in villages. “We screened 1.37 lakh people in rural areas in the last two weeks of May in our doorto-door campaign with a 3.3% positivity rate,” he said.
The positivity rate came down from 14.2% on May 12 to 5% on May 31. It further dipped to 3% on June 1.