More virus testing in villages than cities, towns of Punjab

Nitin Jain

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, September 21

The urban-rural divide, which had emerged wide and open in the Covid cases reported in the state during the past 14 days, has also become evident in the daily testing, the government has confirmed.

While a majority of 18 districts conducted more virus tests in their rural areas, only three districts did maximum tests in their towns, the official figures have revealed.

However, when it comes to per million testing comparison, an equal focus remained on the urban and rural areas. While 11 districts covered more per million population in the rural areas, rest 11 conducted more tests per million population in the urban areas.

The region-wise testing distribution compiled by the Health and Family Welfare department, a copy of which is available with The Tribune, showed that Ludhiana, which has been excelling in the state in conducting the maximum Covid tests, has conducted 94,400 tests in villages, while 68,700 tests were conducted in the urban areas of the district.

Mohali, Jalandhar and Faridkot were those three districts which conducted more tests in their towns. While Mohali took 18,200 tests in urban areas and tested 15,700 persons in villages, Jalandhar conducted 60,900 tests in the rural areas and 44,000 in its towns. Faridkot tested 12,600 persons in villages and 12,800 in towns.

The districts that focused their testing drive in the rural areas included Ferozepur with 16,200 tests in villages and 7,900 in towns, Ropar 14,500 rural 6,800 urban, Hoshiarpur 36,900 rural 8,300 urban, Kapurthala 23,600 rural 16,700 urban, Mansa 14,100 rural 5,200 urban, Nawanshahr 25,900 rural 4,500 urban, Pathankot 19,700 rural 10,500 urban, Fazilka 17,700 rural 7,800 urban, Bathinda 26,500 rural 13,800 urban, Amritsar 39,300 rural 24,000 urban, Fatehgarh Sahib 13,200 rural 9,700 urban, Sangrur 40,500 rural 14,500 urban, Patiala 32,000 rural 26,800 urban, Tarn Taran 28,200 rural 5,300 urban, Barnala 19,400 rural 8,300 urban, Gurdaspur 87,700 rural 17,700 urban, Muktsar 26,300 rural 9,900 urban, and Moga conducted 16,000 tests in villages and 5,100 towns.

In per million testing rate, Ludhiana conducted 34,104 tests in the rural areas and 19,268 in the urban areas during the past 14 days.

Among other districts that excelled in more per million testing in rural areas included Amritsar, which conducted 17,402 rural 9,344 urban tests per million population, Barnala 26,912 rural 21,265 urban, Bathinda 16,272 rural 13,389 urban, Gurdaspur 31,221 rural 30,286 urban, Hoshiarpur 20,411 rural 15,243 urban, Moga 9,779 rural 9,435 urban, Pathankot 24,184 rural 15,696 urban, Mohali 13,155 rural 9,721 urban, Sangrur 11,086 rural 4,434 urban, and Muktsar 21,154 rural 18,204 urban.

The districts with more tests per million population in urban areas included Faridkot 17,133 rural 27,791 urban, Fatehgarh Sahib 17,787 rural 28,612 urban, Fazilka 14,683 rural 15,299 urban, Ferozepur 10,185 rural 10,985 urban, Jalandhar 21,184 rural 26,228 urban, Kapurthala 22,709 rural 27,643 urban, Mansa 10,788 rural 11,131 urban, Patiala 15,859 rural 18,854 urban, Ropar 16,438 rural 17,800 urban, Nawanshahr 41,173 rural 67,663 urban, and Tarn Taran took 17,272 tests per million population in rural and 19,535 in urban areas.