CG overtakes Punjab to become 10th most affected State across nation

By Amlan Sinha :

BHILAI,

In terms of recovery, Chhattisgarh at 15th position among all other states

With a total of 1,13,602 cases of COVID-19 positive, Chhattisgarh has overtaken Punjab to become the tenth most affected State in the nation and in terms of recovery, Chhattisgarh stands at fifteenth position among all states. Even Uttarakhand and Jharkhand with limited health resources are showing better recovery rate of corona than Chhattisgarh. Chhattisgarh, which was once called the ‘best administrated as well as controlled State’, in terms of COVID-19, has now officially become the tenth worst affected State from corona infection in the nation.

Till May, State had witnessed a few thousand cases of COVID-19, but from June, the cases have skyrocketed in both cases of COVID-19 positive and deaths. Of all states, Maharashtra with 13.39 lakh cases topped the list followed by Andhra Pradesh with 6.75 lakh cases and Karnataka with 5.82 lakh cases. But in terms of recoveries, Chhattisgarh stood at fifteenth position as many states including Jharkhand, Assam and Uttarakhand have more recoveries than Chhattisgarh. Experts said that this happened, as Chhattisgarh was seeing a steady rise in cases of coronavirus, but Punjab as well as Haryana have been seeing a slight reduction of cases in last two weeks. Ironically, all these states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Kerala, Gujarat, Bihar and West Bengal have population of over 4 crore, but Chhattisgarh has a population of 2.8 crore.

In this condition, rising numbers of COVID-19 positive patients is really a matter of concern. The average compound daily growth rate for the last one week (till September 29) shows that State’s daily growth rate is at 2.1 per cent. However, Capital Raipur as well as Durg have highest rate of 2.8 growth rate. Dr Subhash Mishra, Spokesperson of Chhattisgarh Health Department and Family Welfare said that as in September till 29th, 16 out of 28 districts have seen a reduction in positivity rate, while 5 districts have more or less same positivity rate.

“The worrying factor from seven districts is an increase in positivity rate. The districts with increasing positivity rate trends have to actively increase testing. Even other districts should continue to keep testing as per target to quickly control spread of coronavirus,” said Dr Subhash Mishra. Senior citizens and people with above 50 years of age continue to be most vulnerable. As per fatalities data, 12 per cent of COVID victims are patients above 50 years of age, while 0.1 per cent in the age group of 0 to 10 years. Chhattisgarh is now taking 19 days for cases to double, while Raipur takes 16 days. The national doubling rate average is 37 days. Dr Akhilesh Tripathi, the Deputy Director and In-charge of COVID-19 cases in Chhattisgarh Department of Health and Family Welfare stated that by wearing masks, following social distancing, use of sanitiser and other guidelines, it is possible to curb 80 per cent of COVID cases. But the problem is that, people are taking guidelines lightly and putting their lives at risk of this infection, he added.