Cases per lakh population: Jalandhar tally is more than double of Ludhiana

After Jalandhar, Amritsar, with total positive caseload of 3,612, had the second highest per lakh population cases (584.9).

While 1.37 lakh samples were collected in Ludhiana, in Jalandhar, 74,405 samples were taken, according to the Punjab Covid-19 Status Report till August 26. In Amritsar, a cumulative 77,240 samples were taken for testing.

More testing in Ludhiana explains the maximum total caseload from any district in the state so far, said an official.

Need to increase testing

A government functionary said there was a need to increase testing in other districts also, particularly Jalandhar and Patiala which were witnessing higher cases per lakh population.

The functionary, interestingly, added that there was more testing in Ludhiana because the district had “more tertiary care facilities than other districts”.

The functionary also said that more testing meant lesser fatalities as it helps in early treatment and patient management, a claim which official statistics belie, with highest testing district Ludhiana reporting the highest Covid-19 death toll (363), more than double the fatalities in Amritsar (149) and Ludhiana (148).

‘Sampling to be doubled in these districts’

Punjab Health and Family Welfare Principal Secretary Hussan Lal said, “We are increasing testing in Patiala, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar. We have 35 mobile medical units across the state. We are redeploying these units, focusing on these four districts. We are planning to double the sampling in these districts and on Saturday we are having a meeting with field officers. Officials of these districts would be asked if there is any issue in doubling the testing.”

On difference in scale of sampling in districts, especially relatively lesser sampling taking place in districts with higher cases per lakh population, Lal said, “It depends upon how much sampling is taking place and in which particular area. If you have distributed your teams equally in urban and rural areas, then the number of samples would be less. If you push more teams into urban areas, the sampling numbers would be higher since such urban areas are thickly populated.”

As of August 26, as per the Punjab Covid-19 Status Report, a cumulative of 1,37,501 samples were taken in Ludhiana, 77,240 in Amritsar, 74,277 in Patiala, 74,405 in Jalandhar, 62,975 in Gurdaspur district and 52,114 in Hoshiarpur district. In the remaining 16 districts, less than 50,000 samples were taken. And out of those 16 districts, less than 25,000 samples taken with Muktsar district at the bottom with 20,807 cumulative samples taken so far. Muktsar is among the districts where cases have doubled at a faster pace recently. As of Thursday (August 27), the doubling rate of cases in Muktsar was 15 days, as compared to 20 days on August 13.

An official spokesperson of Punjab government on Friday said, “At present, the state government has capacity to conduct 24,000 tests per day and the target is to achieve the milestone of 30,000 tests by next week.”

In terms of tests per million of population, as of August 26, Punjab had conducted 31,647 tests per million population, higher than the national average of 28,639, but lesser than seven other states, including neighbouring Haryana (35,148 tests per million of population).