Covid positivity rate down to 0.04 per cent in Ludhiana district

Nitin Jain

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, October 3

The weekly average Covid positivity rate, a key indicator of virus surge, has dipped to 0.04 per cent last week, which was four times less than 0.15 per cent recorded during August in Ludhiana, the government has confirmed.

The district’s hit rate was almost half than state’s average of 0.1 per cent but was more than five other districts in the state, which have registered zero positivity, the official figures have revealed.

Officialspeak

We are constantly working to keep the Covid situation under control and continuing with the five-pronged strategy of test, trace, treat, vaccinate and strict enforcement of Covid-appropriate behaviour to avert the resurgence of the deadly infection, especially ahead of the festival season. Varinder Kumar Sharma, DC

The average positivity rate between September 22 and 28 compiled by the Health and Family Welfare Department, which is available with The Tribune, showed that Pathankot remained the worst-hit district with the highest hit rate of 0.3 per cent while Barnala, Nawanshahr, Mansa, Kapurthala, and Muktsar remained the safest districts with zero positivity rate during the last week of September.

While Ropar, Fazilka, Mohali, and Faridkot stood second with 0.2 per cent hit rate, Moga, Sangrur, Ferozepur, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Bathinda, Hoshiarpur, Fatehgarh Sahib, Patiala, Tarn Taran and Gurdaspur shared the positivity rate of 0.1 per cent on a par with the state average.

Ludhiana, being the biggest and largest district in terms of area and maximum population of almost 4 million in the state remained the worst-hit during the deadly second Covid wave, had made a remarkable turnaround from being the worst-hit to the safest district in the state.

The safe trend persists for the past three months when the district had made a remarkable turnaround by recording the daily positivity rate even below 1 per cent.

The development holds significance as Ludhiana had earlier assumed the dubious distinction of being the worst-hit district with the maximum number of daily Covid cases and deaths till May.

If it was mayhem in May when the second Covid wave had rapidly slid into a devastating crisis with the health facilities unbearably falling short, oxygen supplies running low and many dying even without seeing a doctor, June had given a sigh of relief with the signs of gradual retreat and impact of deadly virus plateauing and the safe trend continued in July, August, and September when the hit rate further dipped to as low as 0.04 per cent last week. This U-turn was all the more significant as the daily positivity rate has dropped by a whopping 19.53 per cent from the highest-ever ratio of 19.57 per cent in the past three months. The district had touched its peak of virus surge on May 2.

The daily hit rate has been plummeting constantly since the last week of May.