Daily positivity rate touches all-time high at 13.1 per cent in Ludhiana

Nitin Jain

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, May 13

The second wave of Covid continues to wreak havoc with daily cases and deaths rising with each passing day in the worst-hit district of the state. The daily positivity rate, a key indicator of the virus surge, touched an all-time high of 13.1 per cent here last week.

With this, the Ludhiana district’s Covid spread surpassed the state’s positivity rate of 11.7 per cent between April 30 and May 6.

The district’s positivity rate went up from 12 per cent between April 25 and May 1 while the state’s rate remained stable at 11.7 per cent between April 25 and May 6.

With the increasing caseload, Ludhiana continued to remain way ahead from all other districts and earned the dubious distinction of Covid capital of the state.

The grimmer situation through which the district was passing could be gauged from the fact that the district’s average daily positivity rate had registered an increase of 3.1 per cent in less than 10 days. The positivity rate here was on the constant rise since April 26 when it was 10 per cent (between April 20 and 26) and then shot up to 11.1 per cent between April 23 and 29. Earlier, the positivity rate had dipped from 11.5 per cent between April 15 and 21.

However, Mohali continued to lead the state with the highest positivity rate of 24.9 per cent, followed by Bathinda 17.3 per cent, Fazilka 17.1, and Mansa 13.8 per cent.

The districts that were placed better than Ludhiana included Patiala with a positivity rate of 12.4 per cent, followed by Pathankot and Jalandhar 11.7 per cent each, Amritsar 11.6, Muktsar 11.2, Ropar 10.7, Faridkot 9.2, Moga 8.6, Sangrur 8.3, Fatehgarh Sahib 8.1, Hoshiarpur 7.3, Ferozepur and Gurdaspur 6.4 per cent each, Barnala 6.3, Nawanshahr 6, Tarn Taran 5.4 and Kapurthala registered the lowest positivity rate of 5.2 per cent in the state.

In contrast to Ludhiana district’s rising trend, the state’s positivity rate had come down from 12 per cent between April 23 and 29 to 11.7 per cent between April 30 and May 6. Earlier, the state’s Covid surge had risen from 7.2 per cent between April 2 and 8 to 9.5 between April 9 and 15 and 9.8 per cent between April 16 and 22.