Ludhiana district continues to lead with max Covid +ve students

Nitin Jain

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, October 1

Ludhiana continues to lead the state with a maximum of 26 of the total 195 Covid positive students from government schools in the state during the past 45 days, the government has confirmed.

Of the total seven employees, including both teaching and non-teaching, testing positive for the virus, one case was from Ludhiana, the official figures have revealed.

Besides prioritising vaccination of teaching and non-teaching staff in both government and private schools, the Health Department has been continuing with aggressive testing of students and staffers on a daily basis. The Education Department has ensured that only fully vaccinated staffers attend schools. Alok Shekhar, Principal Health Secretary

However, not a single student or staffer has tested positive for Covid in Ludhiana district since September 9.

On the directions of the then Chief Secretary, Vini Mahajan, the Health Department had launched an extensive testing campaign in schools after 20 students from two schools in Ludhiana had tested positive for Covid on August 10.

The cumulative data of testing in government schools conducted from August 10 to September 25, compiled by the Health and Family Welfare Department, a copy of which is available with The Tribune, showed that 195 students and seven staffers of the total 4,34,745 students and 41,765 staffers (both teaching and non-teaching) tested from 7,743 government schools in 22 districts have been found Covid positive so far, accounting for 0.04 per cent positivity rate.

While Mohali continues to report the highest of 0.26 per cent positivity rate among the tested students and staffers, the second highest of 0.15 per cent hit rate has been recorded in Moga. The third worst-hit district was Fatehgarh Sahib with a positivity rate of 0.15 per cent.

Ludhiana, Kapurthala, Fazilka, Ferozepur and Nawanshahr recorded the hit rate of 0.04 per cent each, which was on par with the state’s average positivity, but higher than seven other districts, two of which reported no positive case.

Among the districts which reported higher positivity rate than the state’s average were Amritsar with a hit rate of 0.06 per cent, Barnala and Bathinda 0.07 per cent each, Faridkot 0.1 per cent, Muktsar 0.09 per cent, Patiala 0.06 per cent, and Pathankot 0.08 per cent. The districts with lower than state’s positivity rate included Hoshiarpur 0.01 per cent, Jalandhar 0.02 per cent, Mansa 0.02 per cent, Sangrur 0.03 per cent and Tarn Taran 0.02 per cent. Two districts that reported zero hit rate were Gurdaspur and Ropar.

The district-wise figures revealed that Ludhiana tested maximum of 65,714 students and 2,981 staffers in 1,491 schools followed by 37,212 students and 1,243 staffers in 832 schools of Amritsar, 23,039 students and 2,844 staffers in 530 Gurdaspur schools, 20,897 students and 3,235 staffers in 460 Bathinda schools, 16,577 students and 474 staffers in 201 Muktsar schools, 19,501 students and 1,449 staffers in 522 Sangrur schools, 17,660 students and 14,584 staffers in 201 Tarn Taran schools, 30,440 students and 2,876 staffers in 430 Jalandhar schools, 6,669 students and 28 staffers in 138 Ferozepur schools, 22,845 students and 120 staffers in 119 Fazilka schools, 8,716 students and 118 staffers in 90 Fatehgarh Sahib schools, 23,143 students and 1,394 staffers in 242 Nawanshahr schools, 8,171 students in 277 Mansa schools, 19,392 students and 1,293 staffers in 141 Pathankot schools, 5,492 students and nine staffers in 183 Barnala schools, 10,869 students and 4,888 staffers in 376 Kapurthala schools, 18,007 students and 1,625 staffers in 191 Patiala schools, 17,869 students and 390 staffers in 434 Ropar schools, 10,818 students and 543 staffers in 152 Faridkot schools, 38,088 students and 1,581 staffers in 477 Hoshiarpur schools, 12,080 students and lone staffer in 238 Moga schools and 1,546 students and 89 staffers in 18 schools were tested in Mohali district.