A six-month-old girl from Kapurthala, who was admitted to the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) for corrective heart surgery and tested positive for COVID-19, died on Thursday taking the tally to 17, according to an official statement.
The State also reported 26 fresh cases — 18 from Patiala, six from Jalandhar and two from Amritsar — taking the count to 283. The Health department said 66 patients have so far been cured.
Chief Minister Amarinder Singh told party president Sonia Gandhi during a video conference that he had ordered detailed audit of every virus-related death by experts to understand and check the high mortality rate in the State. He informed the party leadership that the government was being guided by a group of experts in handling the crisis.
“The mortality numbers are high largely due to co-morbidity and lack of health-seeking behaviour [patients come late to hospital],” he said.
“Despite the high mortality rate of 6.2%, the rate of growth is lower than the country with the cases doubling in 16 days against the national average of 9. In percentage terms, the cases had steadily declined from 2.57% of the cases in India [as of March 31] to 1.22% in 3 weeks [till April 22], revealing effective containment,” he said.
On rapid testing, the Chief Minister said 3,502 cases were tested before the ICMR suspended such tests. The State has 10,500 rapid testing kits supplied by the ICMR while 10,000 had been ordered by the State government, with deliveries in progress. The government has also floated tender inquiry for another 50,000 kits.
