Compared to other poll-bound states, cases under control in Punjab

CHANDIGARH: The Covid-19 situation in terms of caseload and test positivity appears to be in control in Punjab in comparison to other poll-bound states. However, the high mortality rate continues to be the Achilles’ heel of clinical management of patients in the state that account for 47.78% of deaths reported in five states in the past few days.
Punjab along with the other four states — Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur — is in the middle of assembly elections amidst the third wave of infection fuelled by the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

Punjab had the second-lowest weekly case positivity rate of 2.6% after Uttar Pradesh, where 2.1% of the samples examined were found Covid positive between February 6-10. Goa had the highest positivity rate of 11.8%, while in Manipur 10% of samples tested came back positive. The figure for Uttarakhand was 3.8%.
Among these states, no district in Punjab had positivity rate above 10%. Out of 22 districts in the state, six — Mohali (9.62%), Bathinda (7.75%), Muktsar (6.71%), Ferozepur (6.54%), Faridkot (6.35%) and Fazilka (6.21%) — had case positivity rate between 5% to 10%, while in remaining districts the rate was below 5% as recommended by the World Health Organisation. In Uttar Pradesh, just one district of Gautam Buddha Nagar, out of 75, had positivity rate above 10%. Nine districts out of 16 in Manipur, three out of 13 in Uttarakhand and both North and South Goa recorded positivity rate of above 10%.
During the six-day period, 18,016 cases — 2,499 cases per day — surfaced in Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state in the country, while Punjab registered 5,771 cases — 682 per day on average. As many as 4,254 cases were reported in Uttarakhand, 1,999 in Goa and 1,086 in Manipur.