Kapurthala records 400% jump in cases in a month

KAPURTHALA: Kapurthala district has recorded around 400% jump in the positive cases in the past one month.

The district had 388 positive cases and 12 deaths till August 5, which have now shot up to 1,541 infections and 67 fatalities.

The health department was collecting 200 samples per day till last month, which has doubled now, according to official records. “Still, the health officials are unaware of the source of infections of some positive cases and new teams have been added to conduct a field survey. Though the state government has appealed to people to willingly undergo the test, the response is tepid,” a senior health officer said.

Kapurthala is the 7th worst district with 67 casualties from the virus and on average the district is reporting two deaths daily for the past 15 days. Still, the district does not have any level-3 bed to treat critical patients.

Serious patients have to be referred to Amritsar medical college for treatment.

District nodal officer Dr Sandeep Dhawan said that the people are not cooperating with health officials in most cases even teams have identified people with comorbidities but most do not want to undergo a test. “People come to hospitals in serious conditions. This is a huge challenge for us,” he said.

Officials said a door-to-door survey was being carried out by ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist) and ANM (Auxiliary Nursing Midwives) workers and around 40,000 people mainly elders, pregnant women with comorbidities have been identified, the groups most susceptible to Covid-19, so that treatment could be given at an early stage.