‘PUNJAB, HARYANA MAY HAVE CROSSED THE PEAK’

BENGALURU: Punjab, Haryana and Kerala seem to have crossed the peak in coronavirus cases, says a prominent public health specialist, who expects India to keep Covid-19 deaths at less than 8,000 with strict enforcement of standard protocols and hospitals in high alert.

India should not be seen as one entity when it comes to tackling Covid-19, because the population size across sates and districts vary, health systems vary and level of literacy varies across and within states, said professor GVS Murthy, director of Indian Institute of Public Health, Hyderabad.

As against total cases per million population, which increased in India from 17.6 cases per million on April 25 to 99.9 per million on May 25, in Maharashtra it rose from 61.9/ million in April to 383/ million on May 25, Professor Murthy noted.

“Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Delhi seem to be nearing the peak while Kerala, Punjab and Haryana seem to have crossed the peak,” Prof Murthy said.

“Since six states (Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Delhi, Rajasthan and MP) contribute 70% cases in the country, unless these states peak, the country peak cannot be reached,” he said.

and Mansa — had no Covid-19 case, while SAS Nagar, Sangrur, Muktsar, Faridkot, Bathinda and Barnala have active case presently.

“This is the result of our containment strategy and the strong follow-up by our teams monitoring the situation. If all goes well, we will improve further in the coming days,” state Covid-19 nodal officer Dr Rajesh Bhaskar said.