State adds 3,500 covid cases in a week, positivity rate up

Weekly growth rate has risen to 0.3% from 0.1% in the week from Jan 24-31, when state had registered 1,941 fresh infections in seven days

CHANDIGARH: Punjab has added almost 3,500 cases of covid for the week February 22-28, with an average of almost 500 a day. The test positivity rate of the state has also jumped from 2.1% at the beginning of February to 3.6% now. Data procured from senior health department functionaries show that the weekly growth rate of the state has also increased to 0.3% from 0.1% in the week from January 24-31, when the state had registered only 1,941 fresh infections in seven days.

In the first week of this month (February 1- 7), 1,370 positive cases were detected with a daily average of 195 cases a day. During the next week from February (8-14), 1,652 new infections were detected with a daily average of 236.

The week between February 14-21 witnessing 2,161 fresh cases with an average of 308 cases a day.

“The situation is not alarming in the state, but the rising case count is a major concern,” Punjab’s nodal officer for covid-19, Dr Rajesh Bhaskar said.

Maximum addition in SBS Nagar

From total addition of cases in the state, the maximum of 443 have been reported in Shaheed Bhagat Singh (SBS Nagar) district, whose total case count rose from 3,507 to 4,050. The district now has the maximum active cases in the state.

According to the media bulletin for Saturday, of 4,436 total active cases in the state, 709 (nearly 15%) are active in SBS Nagar. On the list are SAS Nagar (556); Ludhiana (553); Jalandhar (478) and Amritsar (437) districts.

Testing crossed 30,000

Testing has also increased in the state, following directions from chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh, but is yet to cross the 30,000 tests per day in a consistent manner.

On February 22, 10,088 samples were tested, which increased to 27,129 on February 26. On Saturday, 32,520 samples were tested.

11 Covid deaths, 595 fresh cases in Punjab

Punjab on Saturday witnessed 595 more coronavirus cases, pushing the infection tally in the state to 181,597, a health bulletin stated. With 11 more fatalities, the death toll rose to 5,825, according to the medical bulletin.

There are 4,436 active cases as of now. On Friday, 628 Covid-19 cases had surfaced in the state.

Punjab has been witnessing an uptick in fresh coronavirus cases for more than two weeks.

Shaheed Bhagat Singh (SBS) Nagar saw a maximum of 75 new cases, Jalandhar 70, Patiala 69 and Ludhiana 62, among the new cases that surfaced in the state.

A total of 368 coronavirus patients were discharged after recovering from infection, taking the number of cured persons to 1,71,336, as per the bulletin.

There are 14 critical patients who are on ventilator support while 79 are on oxygen support, the bulletin said.

Over 29,000 samples were collected on Saturday. A total of 49,82,773 samples have been collected for testing so far in the state, it said.

THE SITUATION IS NOT ALARMING IN THE STATE, BUT THE RISING CASE CUNT IS A MAJOR CONCERN, SAYS PUNJAB’S NODAL OFFICER FOR COVID-19, DR RAJESH BHASKAR