Steepest single-day spike in Punjab, 1,049 contract virus

LUDHIANA/AMRITSAR/PATIALA/SANGRUR/BATHINDA/JALANDHAR: In the biggest single-day spike, Punjab on Thursday reported 26 Covidrelated deaths and 1,049 fresh infections. With this, the state’s death toll is reached 517 and the positive patients’ count to 20,891. As per the state government’s bulletin, 13,659 patients have recovered from the virus so far. There are 6,715 active cases in the state.

Nine patients succumbed to the virus in Ludhiana, taking the district’s death toll to 138. The district also reported 209 positive cases, taking the cumulative count to 4,385, of which 1,423 are active cases.

Four Covid-19 patients, two from Amritsar and two from Gurdaspur district, succumbed to the virus at local hospitals on Thursday. Besides, Amritsar district reported 44 fresh Covid-19 cases. In Gurdaspur, 25 people contracted the infection.

Sangrur reported two deaths and 12 positive cases. Of these, two each are from Dhuri, Sangrur, Longowal, Sherpur and one each from Malerkotla, Amargarh, Moonak and Sunam blocks.

Two Covid-19 patients died while 135 tested positive for coronavirus in Patiala district. Of these 72 are from Patiala city, 22 from Rajpura, 21 from Nabha, seven from Samana and 14 from different villages across the district. In yet another spike, Jalandhar reported 114 positive cases. Besides, station house officer of Aur police station and 15 other cops tested positive for the virus in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar district. Twenty-one fresh cases have been reported from Kapurthala.

A total of 112 people contracted the virus in Bathinda on Thursday, making it the district’s highest single-day spike.

The official spokesperson of the district administration said of the total number of patients, 78 were are workers who had come to work at Guru Gobind Singh Refinery near Raman Mandi, from different states also tested positive. Thirty-six people tested positive for the virus in Ferozepur, 44 in Moga and 25 in Faridkot.