In April alone, Punjab registered a whopping 1,31,239 fresh cases and 2,154 deaths. In fact, Punjab’s 35 per cent of the total positive cases and 24 percent of the total Covid deaths were reported in the month of April — making it the most brutal month since the outbreak of the pandemic.

Every day, on an average, the State registered 4,375 fresh cases while 72 patients succumbed to the deadly virus.

The worsening situation can be gauged from the fact that at the beginning of the month, the State was recording a positivity rate of 1.02 per cent with the State conducting less than 30,000 tests. Punjab’s positivity rate, as of April 30, has been recorded at 10.42 per cent with the figure constantly remaining above or around 10 per cent. Notably, the testing also been increased up to nearly 60,000 in the past month.

Even as the State’s case fatality rate (CFR) has witnessed a slight dip from 2.87 per cent to 2.43 per cent in the month of April, the active cases have registred an increase of whopping 134.13 per cent from 23,832 (9.94 per cent of the total positive cases) recorded at the beginning of the month, to 55,798 (accounting for 15.04 per cent of the total confirmed cases) on April 30 (Friday).

For the fourth consecutive day, more than 100 casualties were recorded pushing the State’s Covid-19 death toll past 9,000-mark. In all, 114 casualties were recorded in the past 24 hours with the State’s death toll stood at 9,022.

Twenty of the total fatalities were reported from Ludhiana; followed by 17 from Amritsar; 12 from Patiala; eight from Mohali; seven each from Gurdaspur, Jalandhar, and Muktsar; six from Sangrur; five each from Ferozepur and Hoshiarpur; three each from Fatehgarh Sahib, Fazilka, Kapurthala and Pathankot; two each from Barnala, Faridkot, Moga, and Nawanshahr.

With 6,132 fresh infections on the last day of the month, the State’s Covid-19 tally has been pushed to 3,70,973.

Among the districts, Mohali reported the highest 857 fresh cases in a single day, followed by Ludhiana with 792 cases, Bathinda 696, Jalandhar 544, Amritsar 518, Patiala 487, Hoshiarpur 256, Pathankot 245, Fazilka 222, Mansa 220, Sangrur 175, Muktsar 158, Ferozepur 150, Ropar 139, Gurdaspur 117, Faridkot 104, Moga 103, registering cases in three digits.