Ludhiana leads Punjab in daily test sampling

Nitin Jain

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, May 28

Even as the impact of the devastating second Covid wave has plateaued, Ludhiana district has been leading the state in daily sampling to test, trace and treat the infection at the initial stage.

Crossing a record of 16,000 mark daily, the sampling figure touched a new high of 16,047 on Thursday to take the cumulative sampling count to 13,11,620, which was the maximum by any district in the state.

Comparatively, the average daily sampling in the state remained between 65,890 and 82,446 in the last week from May 20 to 26.

The data compiled by the district administration, which is available with The Tribune, revealed that the daily sampling has almost doubled in the last 17 days with the figure shooting up from 8,305 on May 10 to 16,047 on May 27. However, it came down to 14,760 on Friday.

The official figures showed that the daily sampling, which was below the 2,000 mark till January 4, when it was as low as 1,330, had crossed the 2,000 mark for the first time this year on January 5, when 2,435 samples were collected.

After going down even below the 1,500 mark on several days in between, the daily sampling had crossed the 3,000 mark for the first time in 2021 on February 25, when 3,024 samples were collected in the district.

The daily sampling has been gradually picking up in the district as it crossed the 4,000 mark on March 4, when 4,075 Covid samples were taken, surpassed the 5,000 mark on March 23, when 5,106 samples were collected, went past the 7,000 mark on April 14 to reach 7,025, breached the 8,000 mark on April 18 to reach 8,341, took over the 9,000 mark to collect 9,932 samples on April 21, crossed the 10,000 mark on April 22 to reach 10,033, surpassed the 13,000 mark on May 12 to take 13,006 samples, went past the 15,000-mark to reach 15,180 on May 14, before touching a record high of 16,047 samples on May 27.

Earlier, the average daily sampling in the district had remained 4,848 between March 22 and 28, which dipped to 4,103 between March 29 and April 4 and 4,457 between April 5 and 11.

The sampling, which was as low as 1,927 between December 28 and January 3, remained 2,239 between January 4 and 10; 1,988 between January 11 and 17; 2,009 between January 18 and 24; 2,053 between January 25 and 31; 1,961 between February 1 and 7; 2,405 between February 8 and 14; 2,397 between February 15 and 21; 2,502 between February 22 and 28; 3,736 between March 1 and 7; 3,830 between March 8 and 14; and 3,761 between March 15 and 21.

Comparatively, the average daily sampling was recorded at a maximum of 4,810 between September 14 and 20 last year, after starting from 925 between August 3 and 9.

However, it was ramped up to 1,826 between August 10 and 16; 3,018 between August 17 and 23; 3,893 between August 24 and 30; 4,005 between August 31 and September 6; and 4,720 between September 7 and 13.

It had started coming down to 4,598 between September 21 and 27; 4,068 between September 28 and October 4; 4,319 between October 5 and 11; 3,865 between October 12 and 18; 3,384 between October 19 and 25; 2,438 between October 26 and November 1; 1,955 between November 2 and 8; 1,969 between November 9 and 15; 2,170 between November 16 and 22; before once again going up to 3,272 between November 23 and 29, falling to 3,121 between November 30 and December 6; 2,775 between December 7 and 13; 2,496 between December 14 and 20; and 2,165 between December 21 and 27.