In yet another highest single-day spike for police cases in district Ludhiana, at least 20 cops tested positive.

The Covid-19 death count in Punjab neared 1,000 mark on Friday as 34 more deaths were reported, driving up the total death count in the State to 991. Also, 1,513 fresh cases of infections were reported in the state, taking the total tally to 39,327 on Friday.

Kapurthala SSP Jaspreet Singh was among those who tested positive for the infection on Friday.

Eight more deaths were reported from Ludhiana, five each from Jalandhar and Patiala, four from Kapurthala, three from Amritsar, two from Moga and one each from Barnala, Faridkot, Fatehgarh Sahib, Ferozepur, Gurdaspur, Mansa and Mohali.

Maximum new cases of infection were again reported from Ludhiana (242), followed by Patiala (201), Jalandhar (169), Mohali (143) and Sangrur (102).

In yet another highest single-day spike for police cases in district Ludhiana, at least 20 cops tested positive. These included 19 cops from Ludhiana city police and one from Ludhiana rural police.

In Ludhiana city police, fourteen policemen from Jagatpuri police post alone, were positive including seven assistant sub-inspectors (ASIs), two head constables, two constables, one lady constable and two home guards.

Five cops including a sub-inspector, two assistant sub-inspectors (ASIs), a constable and a home guard- tested positive from Dehlon police station.

In a statement, Ludhiana Police Commissioner Rakesh Agrawal said, “On August 13, a health worker Mastan Singh had visited a religious place — Prabhu Ka Dera — in village Khanpur to motivate its followers residing inside, for coronavirus testing. He had visited the place on the basis of secret information that the dera residents were coughing. He was beaten up by the dera residents and three accused were arrested. Later during testing, two of the accused tested positive. Now, five policemen who were in raiding team have also tested positive. All are asymptomatic. As a precaution, Dehlon police station has been closed for public dealing for three days till August 24.”

An assistant sub-inspector posted at Jagraon city police station also tested positive.

Ludhiana has reported maximum cases of infection (8,580), followed by Jalandhar (5,011) and Patiala (4,531).

Ludhiana has also reported maximum Covid-19 deaths (289), followed by Amritsar with 121 deaths and Jalandhar with 117 deaths. Patiala has reported 103 deaths, fourth highest from any district. Amritsar has reported 3120 cases of infection, fourth highest from any district.

As per the official media bulletin by Punjab Health and Family Welfare department, there are 14,443 active cases of infection in the State, 418 of them on oxygen support and 42 on ventilator support. 23,893 patients have been discharged.

(With Divya Goyal from Ludhiana and Anju Agnihotri Chaba from Jalandhar)