Punjab health officials worried over case fatality rate

Vishav Bharti

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 24

With people in Punjab throwing safety norms to the wind, it is no news that the state has been topping the Covid fatality rate in the country.

The trend has left the health officials in the spot as no other state is near Punjab’s 3.23 Case Fatality Rate (CFR). The distant second is Maharashtra where CFR is 2.5 per cent, followed by Sikkim (2.2).

Punjab’s CFR is more than double the national average of 1.45. It has emerged as such a big worry that even CM Capt Amarinder expressed concern over the trend. Even neighbouring states are performing much better than Punjab. In Haryana CFR is 1.1 per cent, Himachal Pradesh J&K and Chandigarh 1.6 per cent each.

Punjab has been continuously figuring on top for the past more than four months. The health officials say that it is because the number of cases had witnessed a sudden dip in January.

But independent experts say the number of high deaths is because of high prevalence of co-morbidities. “Punjab has the highest number of patients with co-morbidities. It is a well established fact that Punjab has the highest number of patients suffering with communicable diseases. So the number of casualties will be more,” said Dr JS Thakur of PGI’s School of Public Health.