Punjab saw its biggest single-day spike of 1,741 coronavirus cases on Thursday, taking the COVID-19 tally to 37,824 in the state, according to a medical bulletin.

Thirty-seven more fatalities were also recorded in the state and the death toll now stands at 957, it said

The record jump in the caseload came on a day when the state government announced extension of night curfew by two hours in all cities from August 21.

On August 17, the state had reported a maximum daily increase of 1,704 cases.             Of the fresh fatalities, 10 deaths were reported from Ludhiana, five each from Mohali, Patiala and Sangrur, three from Jalandhar, two each from SBS Nagar, Amritsar and Hoshiarpur and one each from Gurdaspur, Kapurthala and Muktsar, as per the medical bulletin.

One death case reported from Amritsar on Wednesday was deleted as it was counted twice, it said.

Among the districts which reported new cases were Ludhiana (398), Jalandhar (242), Mohali (169), Bathinda (148), Ferozepur (133), Moga (94), Patiala (81), Amritsar (75), Barnala (58) and Fazilka (46), the bulletin said.

Four districts –Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Patiala and Amritsar -- account for 55 per cent of the total coronavirus cases and 63 per cent of the total fatalities in the state, it said.

The bulletin said that atotal of 334 coronavirus patients were discharged after recovering from the infection. So far, 23,037 people have been cured of the infection.

There are 13,830 active COVID-19 cases in the state, as of now, according to the bulletin.

Thirty-nine patients are critical and are on ventilator support while 345 are on oxygen support, it said.

With a collection of 20,290 more samples for COVID-19 testing, the figure of total samples taken so far for testing has reached 8,39,947 in the state, the bulletin said.