State’s covid tally crosses 50,000 mark in 173 days

CONCERN 1,474 test positive in a day; 41 more fatalities push death toll to 1,348

LUDHIANA/AMRITSAR/JALANDHAR/ PATIALA/BATHINDA :Punjab on Friday reported 41 more Covid-related fatalities, taking the death toll to 1,348. The state’s infection tally rose to 50,848 with 1,474 new cases, according to a medical bulletin released by the state government.

It was on March 9 that the state reported its first Covid case. It took the state to 173 days to cross the 50,000 mark.

In August only, state has added 34,729 cases (nearly 68%) to its total caseload, which was 16,119 on July 31.

According to the bulletin, 17 fatalities were reported from Ludhiana on Saturday, 10 from Patiala, three from Jalandhar and two each from Amritsar, Fatehgarh Sahib, Hoshiarpur and Moga and one each from Faridkot, Fazilka and Mohali.

The places which reported fresh cases include Ludhiana 272, Patiala 145, Mohali 137, Amritsar 114, Ferozepur 119 and Pathankot 81, the bulletin said.

As many as 1,083 Covid patients were discharged after they recovered from the infection and so far there have been 34,091 recoveries in the state, according to the bulletin.

There are 15,409 active COVID-19 cases in the state as of now, the bulletin said.

With three more staffers of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Bathinda, tested positive for coronavirus on Saturday. With this, the number of infected persons from the central institute reached 11.

Civil surgeon Dr Amrik Singh Sandhu said so far, five doctors and six people from the administrative department have tested positive.