Fatality rate dips to 2.75 in Punjab, but still highest in country

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 13

When the state is reeling under the second Covid wave, the only hope is the consistent decline in fatality rate.

Though it remains higher than all other states, for the first time after the outbreak of Covid, the case fatality rate (CFR) has come down to 2.75 per cent in Punjab. The national average is 1.2 per cent.

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For almost a year, Punjab’s fatality rate remained above 3. Till the end of January, the case fatality rate in Punjab was 3.23, which was the highest in the country. Since then, the fatality rate is coming down consistently.

In past one month, the state has reported around 82,940 cases and 1,557 deaths. The number of cases has witnessed almost 40 times increase as compare dto the situation in January.

While figuring out the reason behind high fatality rate, state health officials say a large chunk of population in Punjab suffers from comorbidities. However, the reason behind the decline in CFR is the increase in the number of cases in proportion to the number of deaths.

Nationally, after Punjab, the distant second is Sikkim, where the CFR is 2.1, which is followed by Maharashtra and West Bengal with CFR 1.7. Among the neighbours, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand have CFR 1.6, Chandigarh and Delhi 1.5, Jammu and Kashmir 1.4 and Haryana 1.

53 more succumb

The state reported 3,009 cases and 53 deaths in the past 24 hours. In the district-wise break-up of deaths, Hoshiarpur topped the list with seven deaths, followed by Sangrur and Gurdaspur (six each), Amritsar, Jalandhar and Patiala (five each), SAS Nagar (four), and Kapurthala and Ludhiana (three each).