Covid positivity rate rises to 0.15% in Ludhiana district

Nitin Jain

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, August 21

The weekly average Covid positivity rate, a key indicator of virus surge, has gone up to 0.15 per cent last week, which was 50 per cent more than 0.1 per cent recorded during the preceding week in Ludhiana, the government has confirmed.

• Also read: 10 test positive for virus in Ludhiana district

The district’s hit rate was still less than the state’s average of 0.2 per cent but was more than nine other districts in the state, the official figures have revealed.

However, Ludhiana’s positivity rate was on a par with the state’s average positivity rate of 0.1 per cent between August 3 and 9.

The average positivity rate between August 7 and 13, compiled by the Health and Family Welfare Department, a copy of which is available with The Tribune, showed that Fazilka continues to be the worst-hit district with the highest hit rate of 0.58 per cent while Sangrur remained the safest district with the lowest of 0.05 per cent positivity rate.

While Bathinda stood second with 0.56 per cent hit rate, Mohali ranked third in the state with 0.43 per cent positivity rate.

Among other districts, Barnala registered 0.32 per cent positivity rate, followed by Pathankot 0.31 per cent, Faridkot 0.27 per cent, Amritsar 0.26, Moga 0.23, Kapurthala, Patiala and Tarn Taran 0.18 per cent each, Jalandhar 0.15, Fatehgarh Sahib, Hoshiarpur and Ferozepur 0.13 per cent each, Gurdaspur 0.11, Muktsar 0.09, Ropar and Nawanshahr 0.07 per cent each and Mansa 0.06 per cent.

Ludhiana, being the largest district in the state with maximum population of four million, remained the worst-hit during the deadly second Covid wave, but made a remarkable turnaround from being the worst-hit to the safest district in the state.

The safe trend has been persisting for the past two 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 and August when the hit rate further dipped to as low as 0.1 per cent last week.

This U-turn was all the more significant as the daily positivity rate has dropped by a whopping 19.42 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.

The data analysed by the Health and Family Welfare Department showed that Ludhiana’s positivity rate even plummeted below the weekly average of 0.1 per cent in August as it was recorded 0.05 per cent on August 1, 0.07 per cent on August 2, lowest-ever 0.02 per cent on August 3, 0.1 per cent on August 4, 0.06 per cent on August 5, 0.16 per cent on August 6, 0.11 per cent on August 7, 0.08 per cent on August 8, 0.02 per cent on August 9, 0.2 per cent on August 10, 0.37 per cent on August 11, 0.09 per cent on August 12, 0.04 per cent on August 13, 0.05 per cent on August 14, 0.02 per cent on August 15, 0.04 per cent each on August 16, 17, 18 and 19, 0.03 per cent on August 20 and rising again to 0.1 per cent on August 21.