The Central Government has taken a serious note of the Punjab’s constant high death rate in the country — which has persistently recorded at above three percent since over a month now. Punjab mortality rate on Monday is recorded at 3.14 per cent which is double that the national average of 1.49 per cent.
The state has been asked to examine the causes for the high fatalities, especially in the districts which are recorded higher figure.
The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, during its Covid-19 review meeting with 10 states that account for 60 per cent of India’s total active cases — including Punjab — on Monday, red flagged Punjab’s persistent high death rates with some districts reporting over four percent case fatality rate.
The review meeting, which was convened to draw the attention of the 10 State Governments to the problems in their Covid-19 management strategy, primarily discussed Punjab’s case fatality ratio (CFR), besides the noticeable dip in the testing.
Punjab’s CFR — which estimates the share of total deaths among the confirmed positive cases — on Monday was recorded at 3.14 percent with total 4338 deaths out of the 1,37,999 confirmed positive cases.
In fact, the health authorities have also expressed their concern as the state has been recording the death rate continuously above three percent despite a noticeable dip in the number of daily fresh cases and casualties.
The state, which had recorded the single day biggest spike of 2,896 fresh cases on September 17, on Monday recorded 562 fresh cases in the past 24 hours, besides 21 deaths.
What is more! Some districts are registering CFR higher than that of the state. In Punjab, Ropar with 4.8 percent, Fatehgarh Sahib with 4.7 percent.
Tarn Taran with 4.5 percent, Sangrur with 4.22 percent, Kapurthala with 4.12 percent and Ludhiana with 4.07 percent has higher CFR than Punjab’s total.
Other districts with higher CFR include Amritsar with 3.83 percent, Hoshiarpur with 3.46 percent, Jalandhar 3.08 percent, among others.
During the meeting, the Union Health Ministry officials have asked the State Government that its death review committees should examine the causes for high fatalities in these districts to chalk out the further strategy.
At the same time, the Ministry has also pointed at the tremendous dip in the daily positives cases.