As many as 6,691 beneficiaries (60+ and 45-59 years with co-morbidities) were vaccinated in in Punjab Thursday. (Express Photo by Gurmeet Singh) WITH 1,074 new cases, Punjab on Thursday recorded the highest single-day Covid spike in past five months.
The last time the state’s daily tally crossed the 1,000-mark was in October 2020. On October 5 last year, Punjab had recorded 1,062 new cases and after that, cases had begun to decline steadily. The highest number of cases recorded in a day (2,896) was on September 17,
2020.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, Punjab recorded 730 and 778 fresh cases, respectively. Since February 1, the Covid case-count in Punjab has been on a constant upsurge. From nearly 200 cases a day in February first week, it has now reached 1,000 cases a day in March first week.
The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoH&FW) Thursday said that Punjab was still among the six states which are continuing to report a surge in daily cases. “Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Karnataka continue to report a surge in the Covid daily new cases.
Together they account for 85.51 per cent of the new cases reported in the past 24 hours,” said the ministry. It added: “17,407 new cases were registered in the country in the last 24 hours. Maharashtra has reported the highest daily new cases at 9,855. It is followed by Kerala with 2,765 while Punjab reported 772 new cases.”
With 15 fresh deaths as per Thursday’s bulletin, the toll in Punjab due to Covid, reached 5,887. With 1,074 fresh coronavirus cases, the total infections reached 1,85,381. The maximum fresh cases were recorded in Jalandhar (242), SBS Nagar (147) and Hoshiarpur (115).
While 14 patients in Punjab continue to be critical and on ventilator support, 94 are on oxygen support.
The maximum active cases are in Nawanshahr district (SBS Nagar), 897.
Day 4 of second phase of vaccination drive
As many as 6,691 beneficiaries (60+ and 45-59 years with co-morbidities) were vaccinated in in Punjab Thursday. With this, a total of 13,641 beneficiaries from this category have been vaccinated in four days since phase 2 started on March 1.
A total of 1.73 lakh beneficiaries (healthcare + frontline workers) have been vaccinated in Punjab with first dose in phase 1, till Thursday.