COVID-19 positive man dies in Punjab's Gurdaspur, total cases rise to 197

A 60-year-old coronavirus patient from Gurdaspur died on Thursday while 11 more people contracted the infection taking the total number of COVID-19 cases in Punjab to 197, an official said.

A resident of Bhaini Paswal in Kahnuwan, the man had tested positive for coronavirus two days ago and was being treated at a government hospital in Amritsar. He also had hypertension and diabetes, a medical bulletin said.

Among the fresh cases, six were reported from Jalandhar, three from Patiala and two from Pathankot, the bulletin said, adding that the virus has so far claimed the lives of 14 people in the state.

Mohali district continued to top the COVID 19-tally in Punjab with a total 56 coronavirus cases, followed by Jalandhar (31), Pathankot (24), Nawanshahr (19) Ludhiana, Mansa and Amritsar (11 each), Hoshiarpur (7), Patiala (6), Moga (4), Rupnagar, Sangrur and Faridkot (3 each), Fatehgarh Sahib, Kapurthala and Barnala (2 each), Muktsar and Gurdaspur (1 each), according to the bulletin.

Two patients are critical and on ventilator support while 29 have recovered and discharged from hospital, it said further.

A total of 5,524 samples have been taken so far in the state of which 4,727 samples have tested negative and reports of 600 are awaited. Meanwhile, the health minister Balbir Singh Sidhu said the state government is fully prepared to combat the COVID-19 crisis.

Sidhu in an official release here said four districts Mohali, SBS Nagar, Jalandhar and Pathankot -- have been declared as hotspots by the central government as they have reported more than 15 cases of coronavirus.

He further said the health department officials were constantly working to trace all the contacts of affected patients to prevent spread of this infection.

He claimed that SBS Nagar, which had reported 19 coronavirus cases, had not seen any fresh case since March 26.