Covid-19 positive rate falls below 5 pc in Punjab

Covid-19 seems to be on the decline in Punjab as the last week’s average positivity rate remained below 5 per cent. A fortnight ago, it was over 10 per cent. While the state has been conducting over 25,000 tests a day, average positive cases remained around 1,200 in the past week. The average positivity rate between September 14 and 20 was over 9.83 per cent. However, it started declining after that and the positivity rate of the week between September 21-27 came down to 7 per cent. In the September 28-October 4 week, it dipped to 4.2 per cent. According to experts, the fall in the positivity rate indicated a decline in the over-all spread of infection. Dr Rajesh Kumar, former head, School of Public Health, PGI, Chandigarh, said, “The same signals are coming from other indicators as well. The number of deaths and cases have also declined.” However, he cautioned that all precautionary measures must be taken.