Punjab Covid cases breach 1,000-mark after five months

CHANDIGARH: Punjab on Thursday reported over 1,000 new coronavirus cases and 15 more fatalities, according to a medical bulletin.

With 1,074 fresh cases, the infection tally climbed to 1,85,381, while the 15 deaths pushed the toll to 5,887 in the state, it said.

It was on October 5 last year when the state witnessed more than 1,000 cases in a day. In past four days, the state witnessed 2,572 fresh cases and 45 deaths, with the Centre also counting Punjab in eight states with the virus was re-spreading.

The number of active cases also increased from 5,593 on Wednesday to 6,264, according to health bulletin data.

Among the new cases, Jalandhar reported the highest of 242 cases, SBS Nagar 147, Hoshiarpur 115, Mohali 111 and Ludhiana 106.

A total of 385 coronavirus patients were discharged after recovering from the infection, taking the number of cured persons to 1,73,230, as per the bulletin.

There are 14 critical patients who are on ventilator support while 94 are on oxygen support, it said.

A total of 50,97,802 samples have been collected for testing so far in the state, the bulletin said.