Punjab records highest single-day spike of 482 COVID-19 cases; tally at 12,216

Punjab on Friday recorded its highest single-day spike of 482 COVID-19 cases, including that of 46 BSF personnel, raising the state's tally to 12,216, as per a medical bulletin.

Besides, five people died due to COVID-19 in Pathankot, Patiala, Hoshiarpur, Sangrur and Ludhiana, pushing the death toll to 282, it stated.

Punjab continued to record a rise in the number of COVID-19 cases with the state adding 300 to 400 fresh cases daily in the past several days.

On Thursday, the state had witnessed the highest single-day jump of 441 cases and on Wednesday, it had seen 414 cases.

Of the fresh cases, 76 were reported in Jalandhar, followed by 70 each in Patiala and Hoshiarpur, 55 in Amritsar, 46 in Ludhiana, 23 in Moga, 21 in Fazilka, 19 in Sangrur, 17 in Ferozepur, 12 in Mohali, 10 each in Rupnagar and Gurdaspur, nine each in SBS Nagar, Fatehgarh Sahib and Kapurthala, seven in Mansa, five each in Tarn Taran and Faridkot, four in Bathinda, three in Barnala and two in Muktsar.

Forty-three Border Security Force (BSF) personnel in Hoshiarpur and three in Fazilka, while 13 policemen in Ludhiana, three in Moga and one in Barnala were among the new cases.

A total of 355 COVID-19 patients were discharged from hospitals at several places, including Ludhiana, Amritsar, Sangrur, Hoshiarpur, after recovering from the infection. So far, 8,096 people have recovered from the infection.

There are 3,838 active COVID-19 cases in the state till now, according to the bulletin.

Ludhiana continued to top the COVID-19 tally with 2,182 cases, followed by 1,908 in Jalandhar, 1,436 in Amritsar, 1,254 in Patiala, 886 in Sangrur, 647 in Mohali , 449 in Hoshiarpur, 347 in Gurdaspur, 304 in Pathankot, 288 in SBS Nagar, 272 in Ferozepur, 264 in Fatehgarh Sahib, 257 each in Tarn Taran and Moga, 248 in Faridkot, 257 in Moga, 242 in Bathinda, 208 in Fazilka, as per the bulletin.

Seventeen patients are critical and are on ventilator support while 83 are on oxygen support, the bulletin said. A total of 5,09,267 samples have been taken for testing, it said.