Punjab reported 34 more deaths due to COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 991, while 1,513 fresh cases pushed the infection tally to 39,327 on Friday, according to a medical bulletin.
Of the new fatalities, eight were reported from Ludhiana, five each from Patiala and Jalandhar; four from Kapurthala; three from Amritsar; two from Moga and one each from Barnala, Faridkot, Fatehgarh Sahib, Ferozepur, Mohali, Mansa and Gurdaspur, the bulletin said.
Ludhiana recorded a maximum of 242 fresh COVID-19 cases, followed by Patiala (201), Jalandhar (169), Mohali (143), Sangrur (102), Bathinda (90), Amritsar (80), Kapurthala (70) and Ferozepur (69).
Punjab, for the past several days, has been witnessing a spike in the number of novel coronavirus cases with an addition of over 1,000 infections per day.
The state had witnessed its steepest single-day jump of 1,741 COVID-19 cases on August 20.
Four districts of Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Patiala and Amritsar form the bulk of total COVID-19 cases in the state.
Amid the rising number of cases, the state government on Thursday had announced to extend night curfew by two hours in all cities with effect from Friday.
The total number of recoveries rose to 23,893 in Punjab on Friday after 856 more COVID-19 patients were discharged after recovery, according to the bulletin.
There are 14,443 active cases of the novel coronavirus in the state, as of now, it said.
Forty-two COVID-19 patients are critical and on ventilator support while 418 are on oxygen support, the bulletin said.
With a collection of 23,893 more samples for COVID-19 testing, the figure of total samples taken so far for testing has reached 8,63,840 in the state, it said.