Chandigarh: The Punjab government has ordered a detailed audit of every coronavirus death, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh told Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday. He said the audit has been ordered to understand and check the high mortality rate in the state.
The government is also strengthening its pandemic containment measures under the guidance of an expert panel, he told the Congress president in a video conference.
The state has so far reported 16 deaths.
According to a statement, Singh said the mortality rate in the state was largely high due to co-morbidity (additional medical conditions) and a lack of health-seeking behavior (patients come late to a hospital). Singh, however, said Punjab had to be compared with Kerala and Gujarat, which were states with high NRI population.
Punjab is doing significantly better than Gujarat, he said, adding that in terms of cases per 10 lakh population, the numbers were even lower than Kerala (nine/million in Punjab against 12/million in Kerala), he said.
Punjab currently has 257 positive cases, including 16 deaths and two critical patients, while 53 have been cured, he said.
Singh informed the party leadership that the state government was being guided by a group of experts, including former PGIMER Director KK Talwar, in handling the COVID-19 crisis.
In percentage terms, cases in Punjab have steadily declined from 2.57% of the total cases in India (as of March 31) to 1.22% in three weeks (till April 22), Singh claimed. He also cited an example of SBS Nagar, which was formerly known as Nawanshahar, as a case of effective containment that has been "appreciated" by the Centre as well as the media.
In SBS Nagar, which was one of the first hotspots in the country, all 18 patients have recovered and discharged, he claimed, adding no case has been reported in the district since March 26.
SBS Nagar had reported one fatality last month when a Germany-returned 70-year-old man died.
Singh said the state has three containment zones -- Jawharapur in Mohali, Safabadi Gate in Patiala, and Budhlada -- from where over 15 deaths have been reported. Three districts of Ferozepur, Fazilka, Bathinda are green zones with no coronavirus case.
With respect to testing, Singh said 7,887 tests have been done so far.
At present, the testing rate in the state, at 248/million is slightly lower than the national average of 309/million (excluding rapid testing).
Regarding the rapid testing, Singh said 3,502 cases were tested before the Indian Council of Medical Research suspended such tests.
The state currently has 10,500 rapid testing kits supplied by the ICMR while 10,000 have been ordered by the state government, with deliveries in progress. The government has also floated a tender for another 50,000 kits, he said.
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