Punjab on Tuesday recorded 1,964 fresh cases of the novel coronavirus, including Congress MLA from Samana Rajinder Singh and 30 PRTC staff members, besides 67 deaths, pushing the state’s infection tally to 67,547 and death toll to 1990.
Ludhiana reported the highest 13 deaths, followed by 11 in Amritsar; eight in Patiala; seven in Bathinda; four each in Jalandhar and Moga; Three each in Faridkot, Gurdaspur, and Sangrur; two each in Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala, and Muktsar Sahib; and one each in Barnala, Fazilka, Mansa, Mohali, and Ropar.
Ludhiana also reported the maximum number of infections with 311 fresh cases, followed by 265 in Jalandhar, 236 in Amritsar, 206 in Patiala, 168 in Bathinda, 127 in SAS Nagar (Mohali), 126 in Gurdaspur, 104 in Hoshiarpur, 83 in Faridkot, 39 in Tarn Taran, 36 in Fazilka.
32 in Sangrur, 30 in Barnala, 28 in Moga, 25 each in Nawanshahr and Mansa, 24 in Kapurthala, 23 each in Muktsar and Ferozepur, 22 in Fatehgarh Sahib, 16 in Ropar and 15 in Pathankot.
Of the total 22 districts, 18 have positive cases in four-digit figure, while one — Ludhiana — has infection tally in five digits, 12512. The three remaining districts of Tarn Taran, SBS Nagar (Nawanshahr), and Mansa, also have cases close to 1000-mark.
The top five districts in terms of positive cases — Ludhiana, Jalandhar (8354), Patiala (7426), Amritsar (5219), and Mohali (4920) — accounts for 56.9 percent of the state’s total caseload; and 63.77 percent of the total casualties. With a maximum 522, Ludhiana has reported highest number of deaths, followed by 210 each from Jalandhar and Patiala; 209 from Amritsar and 118 from Mohali.
In all, 2307 patients—including 1023 from Mohali, 233 from Patiala, 140 from Ludhiana, 109 from Gurdaspur, 103 from Pathankot, among others—were discharged after recovering from the deadly virus. With this, the number of recoveries has gone up to 49,327 — at the rate of 73.03 percent.
The state still has 16,230 active cases — accounting for 24.03 percent of the total cases — out of which 633 patients are on oxygen support; and 87 are critical and on ventilator support.
Meanwhile, no less than 30 staff members of PEPSU Road Transport Corporation (PRTC), including drivers, conductors and inspectors, have tested positive for coronavirus in Patiala on Tuesday. The PRTC head office has been closed for two days for public dealing.
Asking the people travelling in PRTC buses not to panic, Patiala Civil Surgeon Dr Harish Malhotra said that the staff, including drivers, conductors, had taken required safety precautions and there was no need to panic.
The PRTC employees were tested positive after a three-day camp was organized at Patiala depot and head office where the staff members were tested. The PRTC spokesperson said that coronavirus sampling is also being undertaken at other depots too.
It has been learnt that the majority of those tested positive were asymptomatic.
