Punjab sees 600 new Covid cases, 31 deaths; Chandigarh's tally rises by 23

Punjab registered 600 fresh cases of COVID-19 and 31 deaths in a day while in Chandigarh 23 more people were infected by the virus during the same period, officials said on Saturday.

The number of active cases in Punjab dropped to 8,077 from 8,829 the previous day while deaths were reported from many districts, including Amritsar, Barnala, Bathinda, Faridkot, Ferozepur, Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar and Ludhiana.

Of the fresh cases, Bathinda reported 95 infections, Jalandhar 55 and Fazilka 48. The state's positivity rate stood at 1.14 per cent.

Punjab has so far reported 5,91,762 cases of COVID-19 and 15,802 deaths. With 1,315 recoveries, the number of cured persons has reached 5,67,883, according to a health bulletin.

There are 168 critical patients who are on ventilator support, it said, adding 1,03,56,036 samples have been collected for testing so far in the state.

Chandigarh reported 23 cases of COVID-19, taking the infection tally to 61,403. Two more people died of the infection, taking the toll to 806, according to a medical bulletin.

The number of active cases in the Union Territory dropped to 396. With 78 patients being discharged following recovery, the number of cured people reached 60,201.

A total of 5,49,803 samples have been taken for testing so far and of them, 4,87,151 tested negative while reports of 22 were awaited.