Police personnel patrol outside Golden Temple during the ongoing COVID-19 nationwide lockdown, in Amritsar (PTI Photo)
Fifty-four cases of novel coronavirus were reported from Punjab on Saturday, as spike in new cases continued taking the total tally of persons testing positive to 2,515 since the outbreak.
A policeman each from Barnala and Mohali were among the new cases. There were eight cases where source of infection was outside the state, as per the official media bulletin.
Amritsar alone reported 26 new cases out of which source of infection was not immediately known for 13 cases, raising fears of community spread.
The suspected community spread cases were reported from Chheharta, Katra Sant Singh, Tunda Talab, Jandiala, Bazar Jattan Wala, Kot Khalsa, Katra Charat Singh and Shastri Market areas.
However, Amritsar Deputy Commissioner Shiv Dular Singh Dhillon said, “We should not be scared of numbers.” “New cases are being reported. One of the reasons behind the increase in number is that there is an increase in testing. We have increased our testing from five to 10 times. Instead of living in a fool’s paradise, we should track down cases with intensive testing. It is one way to control coronavirus. Because more you find the cases, the less spread of infection is there,” Dhillon said.
The DC said most of the new cases reported on Saturday were asymptomatic. “With their identification, now further spread of infection has been controlled. So we should not be scared of increasing numbers,” Dhillon said.
Ten new cases were reported from Ludhiana, five from Pathankot, four from Fatehgarh Sahib, two each from Faridkot and Mansa and one each from Bathinda, Moga, Fazilka, Barnala and Mohali.
An official of the health department said more samples were being tested from flu centres and among the new cases, there were many being reported from these centres. On Saturday. Punjab received 5,558 test reports.
As per the media bulletin, 2092 patients have recovered and there are 373 active cases. The state has reported 50 COVID-19 deaths. There are eight patients on oxygen support and three critically ill on ventilator support.
So far, maximum cases have been reported from Amritsar (434), followed by Jalandhar (270) and Ludhiana (232), as per the media bulletin.