In the past 24 hours, four to five persons, on an average, died of the Covid in Punjab which has reported a whopping 106 casualties on Wednesday — the highest single day figure reported in the State.
With the jump, the state’s COVID-19 death toll has reached 1,618, pushing the mortality rate to 2.84 percent from 2.72 percent a day before.
Maximum 18 deaths were reported from Ludhiana — highest in any district; followed by 11 in Jalandhar; 10 in Bathinda; nine in SAS Nagar (Mohali); eight each in Amritsar and Gurdaspur; seven in Ropar; six in Patiala; five each in Hoshiarpur, Ferozepur, and Kapurthala; three each in Fatehgarh Sahib and Fazilka, two each in Faridkot, Sangrur, and Tarn Taran; and one each in Muktsar and SBS Nagar (Nawanshahr).
Continuing the trend, the State has reported a spike of 1514 fresh cases — including 60 prisoners of which 44 are from Bathinda and 16 from Muktsar — in a span of 24 hours for another day, taking the total number of coronavirus cases in the State to 56,989.
Highest 242 fresh cases were reported from Ludhiana, followed by Jalandhar which reported 171 new infections, 163 in Bathinda, 160 in Patiala, 112 in SAS Nagar (Mohali), 99 in Amritsar, 64 in Faridkot, 63 in Muktsar, 60 in Barnala, 56 in Fazilka, 46 in Ferozepur, 44 in Sangrur, 30 in Ropar, 27 each in Mansa and Tarn Taran, 25 each in Gurdaspur and Kapurthala, 24 each in Moga and Pathankot, 18 in Hoshiarpur, and 17 each in Fatehgarh Sahib and SBS Nagar (Nawanshahr).
Other than 60 prisoners, 13 healthcare workers from Ludhiana, 11 frontline workers — including five from Tarn Taran, two each from Bathinda and Fazilka, and one each from Gurdaspur and Barnala — have also been tested positive.
A total of 1,595 patients — including 397 from Ferozepur, 347 from Ludhiana, 197 from Bathinda, 179 from Patiala, 108 from Amritsar, 104 from Hoshiarpur, among others—were recovered and discharged from the hospital taking the total number of recoveries to 39,742 — 69.74%.
The State still has 15,629 active cases (27.42 percent), of which 440 patients are on oxygen support, and 71 are critical and on ventilator support.
A total of 11,01,912 (11.01 lakhs) samples have been collected in the state till date, of which 20,241 were collected on Wednesday and out of which 1514 turned out to be positive with the positivity rate of 7.48 percent against 7.96% recorded a day before.