Covid cases surge, Punjab Govt likely to impose curbs on gatherings

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 2

With a rapid increase in Covid-19 cases, the state is gearing up to put more restrictions on public gatherings and make Covid-related protocols stringent.

According to sources, the decision was taken at a meeting chaired by the Chief Secretary. The sources said the Health Department’s statistical models predicted that the daily number of cases may reach 1,000 by January 5.

Patiala reports 302 infections in 3 days

• In the highest single-day spike over the past six months, Patiala on Sunday reported 133 Covid-positive cases
• Of the 133 cases, Patiala city alone reported 120, while the rest were reported from Nabha, Rajpura, Kauli and Dudhdan Sadhan
• With this, the tally of active cases in the district has risen to 351
• Around 302 cases have been reported in the past three days. Health officials say the rising positivity rate, which has reached above 11%, is a cause for concern

The government has already asked the people without complete vaccination to stay indoors. The sources revealed that there may be more restrictions related to usage of public places. With 417 fresh cases and three deaths reported on Sunday, the state seems to be heading towards the third wave.

With this, the number of active cases reached 1,369, which is a four-fold increase in just four days. The active cases in third week of December were around 300.

As far as absolute number of cases is concerned, there’s almost 15 times rise as the daily average of cases in the past five months was around 30 cases. Among the districts in the state, Patiala is the worst affected with 133 cases reported today, followed by Pathankot (78), SAS Nagar (55), Jalandhar (45) and Ludhiana (40).