State’s Covid tally crosses one-lakh mark in 198 days CFR continues to be major concern as Punjab has worst death rate of 2.86%

CHANDIGARH : With 1,498 new cases, Punjab’s Covid-19 tally crossed the 1-lakh mark on Tuesday. The state continues to be on the top in the case fatality rate (CFR) at 2.86%, against the national average of 1.7%. Case fatality rate measures the severity of a particular disease by defining the total number of deaths as a proportion of reported cases of a specific disease at a specific time.

Meanwhile, 66 more fatalities pushed the death toll to 2,926 in the state. Eleven deaths were reported from Jalandhar, nine each from Ludhiana, Amritsar and Patiala, six from Gurdaspur and three each from Bathinda, Ferozepur and Rupnagar, two each from Moga and Mohali, and one each from Faridkot, Fatehgarh Sahib, Fazilka, Kapurthala, Mansa, Muktsar, Pathankot, Sangrur and Tarn Taran, the bulletin said.

With the 1,498 fresh cases, the Covid-19 count reached 1,01,341 in the state, as per the medical bulletin.Among places which reported new cases are Amritsar (257), Mohali (227), Patiala (127), Ludhiana (115), Gurdaspur (93) and Kapurthala (92). There are 21,288 active cases in the state, as of now, according to the bulletin.

A total of 1,718 coronavirus patients were discharged after recovering from infection, taking the number of cured persons in the state to 77,127.

Punjab crossed 50,000 cases in 173 days (on August 29) after it reported its first positive case on March 9. It took just 25 days for the state to add another 50,000 cases. Punjab is 27th state in the country to cross 1 lakh cases with neighbouring Haryana already crossing this benchmark few days ago.

The state has added more than 85,000 cases in August and

September as till July 3, state’s tally total tally of positive cases was just 16,119 cases. In August alone, Punjab added 37,743 cases, according to official data.

Projections as per assessment

State’s tally of 1 lakh cases were as per the assessment of projections by experts. It was only based on these inputs by experts that CM Captain Amarinder Singh had warned that the state would reach 1 lakh cases by midSeptember.

Where state stands now?

As per Punjab’s nodal officer for Covid-19 Dr Rajesh Bhaskar, the fresh assessments made by experts of Government of India have predicted 1.5 lakh cases in the state by mid-October.

“Cases may rise further as we are also increasing testing. “But if you will look at the positivity rate of Punjab, it remains well below the national average. We have also managed to decrease the number of deaths in past one week,” he said.

“We have also been able to take our contact tracing to 6.5 persons per infections,” he said. This contact tracing was the key shortcoming in Punjab’s fight against this pandemic as till one month back, this ratio of was less than three persons,” he said.

Punjab’s CFR continues to be worst

Punjab continues to be on top in the country with worst CFR at 2.86% as per figures available till September 21. It was September 9 that state had surpassed Maharashtra and Gujarat to top in the CFR. As per the latest analysis of Covid-19 cases available on Government of India’s mygov.in/ covid.19 website, Punjab’s CFR had decreased in past two weeks, but it is still worst in the country at 2.8%. Maharashtra’s CFR now has come down to 2.7% and Gujarat’s 2.68%. Though Punjab’s neighbour Haryana has more case load but its CFR is 1.04%.

The worst CFR is also likely to be discussed at meeting of chief ministers of worst-hit states with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday. Punjab has so far conducted 1,62,7821 tests of which 5,46,150 have been conducted in September only. The state now has been taking over 28,000 samples a day on an average in past one week.

Former PSHRC member dies of Covid

Former Punjab and Haryana high court judge and member Punjab State Human Rights Commission (PSHRC), justice Ashutosh Mohunta (retd) died due to Covid-19 infection on Tuesday. A senior Fortis hospital, Mohali, functionary where he was admitted on September 18, said that he was suffering from Covid-19 and was having co-morbidities.

Meanwhile, Punjab health minister Balbir Singh Sidhu, who was in Patiala on Tuesday to review of the Covid-19 situation, said the state will soon be able to control the spread of the deadly infection as per the prevailing trends.