Punjab’s tally on Friday inched close to 300. With 11 new cases from Patiala, Mansa, Jalandhar, Amritsar and Ludhiana, the state’s tally now stood at 298 with 17 reported deaths. Continuing to add more and more patients to the state’s total number, Rajpura town in Patiala district has reported six more positive cases. All the six cases are contacts of the already diagnosed cases. With 36 corona-positive cases alone, Rajpura is the new hotspot in the State. Followed by Mohali and Jalandhar with 63 cases each, the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder’s home district Patiala now has a total of 55 cases. The district authorities have been blaming a spike in cases in the area on hookah parties that was held there in defiance of curfew orders. Alarmed, the district authorities have decided to screen the entire population of Rajpura town for any symptoms of coronavirus. Patiala Civil Surgeon Dr Harish Malhotra said that health teams operating in Rajpura had collected 58 samples on Thursday out of which six have been found to be positive.The Civil Surgeon said that the health teams are tracing the contacts of all persons tested positive.