Chandigarh, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has ordered audit of every Covid-19 death to understand and check the high mortality rate in the state.

The government was strengthening pandemic containment measures under the guidance of an expert team, the Chief Minister said, here on Thursday.

He gave this update to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi through video link.

The expert group comprises K.K. Talwar, former Director of the PGI Hospital; Raj Bahadur, Vice-Chancellor of State Health University; Rajesh Kumar, former head of the School of Public Health, PGI; as well as experts from the PGI and the John Hopkins University.

On high mortality rate in the state, he said it was due to co-morbidity and lack of health-seeking behaviour (patients come late to hospital).

Despite the high 6.2 per cent mortality rate, the growth rate of Covid-19 in the Punjab was lower than India, with the cases doubling in 16 days against the national average of 9 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 in the state, he said.

Singh pointed to Nawanshahr as a case of effective containment, appreciated by the Centre as well as the media.

In Nawanshahr, one of the first hotspots in the country, all 18 patients, but for one death, recovered and been discharged. Also, no case had been reported since March 26, he said.

Punjab was doing significantly better than Gujarat, and in terms of cases per million population, even lower than Kerala (9 per million in Punjab vs 12 per million in Kerala), he said.

Punjab currently has 257 positive cases, with 16 dead and two critical patients, including one on ventilator, while 53 had been cured or discharged.

The state has three containment zones (where there are more than 15 cases -- Jawaharpur, Safabadi Gate in Patiala, Budhlada), while three districts -- Ferozepur, Fazilka and Bathinda -- are green zones with no cases.

The testing rate in Punjab is 248 per million, which is slightly lower than the national average of 309 per million, excluding rapid testing.

On the rapid testing, he said 3,502 cases were tested before the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) suspended the process. The state has 10,500 rapid testing kits supplied by the ICMR, while 10,000 have been ordered by the state, with deliveries in progress.