Punjab sees record jump of 142 COVID-19 deaths, adds 6,472 cases

CHANDIGRAH: Punjab on Wednesday recorded the biggest daily jump of 142 fatalities due to COVID-19 that pushed the death toll to 8,772 while 6,472 fresh cases took the cumulative tally to 3,58,186, according to a medical bulletin.

The number of active cases in the state increased to 53,426 from 51,936 on Tuesday, the bulletin stated.

Of the latest fatalities, 22 were reported from Gurdaspur, 18 from Amritsar, 17 from Sangrur, 15 from Ludhiana, 12 from Mohali and 10 from Patiala, it said.

Ludhiana saw the highest number of fresh cases at 952, followed by 867 in Mohali, 614 in Jalandhar, 597 in Patiala and 501 in Amritsar, among other districts As many as 5,272 coronavirus patients were discharged after they recovered from the infection, taking the number of cured persons to 2,95,988, the bulletin said.

There are 97 critical patients in the state who are on ventilator support while 700 are on oxygen support, it said.

So far, 71,07,801 samples have been collected for testing, it added.

Meanwhile, Chandigarh's COVID-19 caseload surged to 41,122 with 772 fresh infections while the death toll mounted to 457 as 11 more people succumbed to the disease, a medical bulletin stated.

There are 6,306 active cases in the union territory, it said.

The bulletin stated that 435 coronavirus patients were discharged after they recovered from the infection.

With this, the number of cured persons stands at 34,359.

So far, 3,97,590 samples have been taken for testing.

Of these, 3,55,384 have tested negative while reports of 72 are awaited, it said.