COVID-19: At 3%, Punjab’s case fatality rate is twice India’s

Ruchika M. Khanna
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, October 2

Punjab’s case fatality rate (CFR) is now twice that of the country, the state’s bulletin showed on Friday.

The COVID bulletin showed that Punjab’s CFR on Friday peaked to 3, as against the country’s CFR of 1.6 per cent---a development that came even as the number of new positive cases dropped to 1,071 on Friday.

As many as 50 people have succumbed to the contagion in the past 24 hours and 3,501 persons have died in Punjab since the state reported its first COVID death in March.

The high CFR in the state is giving jitters to the health authorities, especially considering that CFR is falling across India and globally.  

Districts like Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar are reporting a CFR of almost 4 per cent. Eight deaths were reported in Amritsar on Friday, and six in Ludhiana and Gurdaspur---a place that emerging as a new hotspot.

Dr Rajiv Bhaskar, state nodal Officer for COVID-19, told The Tribune that the main reasons for the continuous increase in CFR was the high incidence of comorbidities in the state population, and the late testing of positive cases.

“There is high incidence of diabetes, coronary ailments and obesity in Punjab’s population. Also, people are arriving for testing late, after the infection has reached a late stage. We are actively encouraging home isolation to ensure that people have no fear of being isolated in institutional treatment and get themselves tested as soon as they show symptoms. We are hopeful of the CFR falling fast,” he said.

Punjab has also been criticised for low testing. The number of tests done per day is just 30,000, and the state's positivity rate is 6.2 per cent. The positivity rate is higher in the state, as compared to other states like Bihar (2.5 per cent) and Jharkhand (3.7 per cent), where similar levels of testing are being undertaken.

District                 Cases               Deaths

Ludhiana             18203                  750

Jalandhar            13219                   396

Amritsar              10278                   371

Patiala                 11725                   328

Sangrur                 3599                   150

Mohali                 10648                   192

Hoshiarpur            4647                   164

Gurdaspur             6073                   154

Ferozepur              3815                  103

Pathankot               3765                  80

Tarn Taran              1676                  68

Bathinda                 5976                 117

Fatehgarh Sahib     1938                  86

Moga                      2270                  72

Nawanshahr           1660                  50

Faridkot                  2782                  45

Fazilka                    2460                  37

Kapurthala             3347                  143

Ropar                    2142                    78

Muktsar                 2547                   44

Barnala                  1850                  43

Mansa                   1594                   30

Total.                 1,16,213                3,501