Punjab hits new peak with 3,477 fresh cases — highest since Covid outbreak

In the highest ever single-day spike since the pandemic outbreak, Punjab on Monday recorded 3,477 fresh Covid-19 infections and 52 deaths, pushing the case tally to 2,76,223 and fatality toll to 7,559. The active case count has now reached 27,866.

It was on March 26 that the daily infection count in Punjab had crossed 3,000-mark when 3,176 cases were reported. Since then, state has reported more than 3,00 cases on at least seven other days with the previous maximum of 3,459 cases being recorded on April 9.

The numbers, amid the ongoing second wave, are staggering compared to the highest single-day case count of 2,896 which was reported during the first wave on September 17 last year.

As per a state health bulletin, maximum eight deaths each were recorded in Amritsar and Hoshiarpur, five each in Jalandhar, Gurdaspur and Patiala, three in Kapurthala, two each in Faridkot, Ropar and Pathankot and one each in Fatehgarh Sahib, Fazilka, Ferozepur, SAS Nagar, Muktsar, SBS Nagar and Tarn Taran.

With 662 fresh cases, SAS Nagar reported the highest number of infections, followed by Ludhiana (523), Jalandhar (366) and Amritsar (305).

While 45 patients are critical and ventilator support, 360 are on oxygen support.

Maximum active cases are in SAS Nagar (4,996) followed by Ludhiana (3,381), Amritsar (3,141), Jalandhar (3,088) and Patiala (2458).

Meanwhile, Punjab has administered a total of 19.43 lakh doses of vaccine till Monday, including 4.55 lakh first jabs to healthcare and frontline workers, 1.35 lakh second doses to healthcare and frontline workers, 13.23 lakh first doses to above 45 beneficiaries and 29,317 second doses to above 45.