Amarinder Singh orders detailed audit of every COVID-19 death by experts to check mortality rate

The government was also strengthening its pandemic containment measures, under the guidance of an expert team, he added.

The Chief Minister gave this update to Congress president Sonia Gandhi during a video conference, at which he informed the party leadership that the state government was being guided by a Group of Experts in handling the COVID crisis.

The group comprises former PGI Director Dr K K Talwar, State Health University Vice Chancellor Dr Raj Bahadur, Dr Rajesh Kumar, former Head, School of Public Health, PGI, as well as experts from PGI, John Hopkins University, etc.

The mortality numbers in the state were high largely due to co-morbidity and lack of health-seeking behaviour (patients come late to hospital), Capt Amarinder said.

Despite the high mortality rate of 6.2 per cent, the rate of growth of COVID-19 in the Punjab was lower than India, with the cases doubling in 16 days against the national average of nine days. In percentage terms, cases in Punjab had steadily declined from 2.57 per cent of the total cases in India (as of March 31) to 1.22 per cent in three weeks (till April 22), revealing effective containment of Covid-19 in the state, the Chief Minister said.

He cited the example of Nawanshahar as a case of effective containment, that had been appreciated by the Union Government as well as the media. In Nawanshahar, which was one of the first hotspots in the country, all 18 treated cases (besides one initial death of Granthi Baldev Singh) had recovered and been discharged, and no case had been reported since March 26, he informed the meeting.