Chandigarh, Feb 12 (IANS): The average daily Covid-19 cases in Punjab has come down to about 200 per day with a recovery rate of 95 per cent, state Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu said on Friday.

He said all civil surgeons have been directed to test the virus at least 1,000 per million population.

The minister said to accelerate contact tracing, instructions have been issued to trace at least 20 contacts of every positive patient and get them tested as well.

He said the contact tracing increased from four contacts per case to nearly 12.

Sidhu said at the peak the state used to report 2,500-3,000 cases per day. Due to good containment efforts of the state government, the number of cases have been decreasing steadily.

Divulging about the vaccination programme, Sidhu said 2.05 lakh healthcare workers and 1.77 lakh frontline workers have been registered for COVID-19 vaccination. A total of 74,286 healthcare and 23,085 frontline workers have been vaccinated.

He assured that the vaccine is safe and effective and everyone must get vaccinated.

Currently, the state has 80 containment zone and 2,081 micro containment zones to prevent the spread of the virus.