Steepest spike till date: With 187 new cases, corona tally surges to 772 in Punjab

Punjab on Saturday registered the steepest surge in Covid-19 patients till date with 187 more people, including 142 pilgrims returning from Nanded in Maharashtra, testing positive for coronavirus, taking the total count of infected persons in the state to 772.

The tally of corona-infected persons in the state has been surging aggressively ever since over 3,500 pilgrims from Hazur Sahib Gurdwara at Nanded early this week.

Out of 187 new coronavirus-positive cases, reported on Saturday, 142 had returned from Nanded, a health official said.

Out of total 772 confirmed cases in the state, Nanded-returned pilgrims coronavirus-positive pilgrims accounted for 44 per cent of total Covid-19 tally.

A total of 105 persons were tested positive for infection on Friday with 91 of them having returned from Nanded. Another 105 were tested positive for infection in the state on Thursday.

Among fresh cases on Saturday, 53 were reported from Amritsar, followed by 31 from Hoshiarpur, 22 from Moga, 21 each from Patiala and Ludhiana, 15 from Jalandhar, nine from Ferozepur, six from Fatehgarh Sahib, three from Muktsar, two from Mohali and one each from Gurdaspur, Sangrur, Kapurthala and Rupnagar.

The state government has already ordered a 21-day quarantine for people coming from outside.

All 22 districts of the state now have COVID-19 cases.

Amritsar now has topped the COVID-19 tally in the state with 143 coronavirus cases, followed by 119 in Jalandhar, 94 in Ludhiana, 93 in Mohali, 89 in Patiala, 42 in Hoshiarpur, 28 in Moga, 27 in Ferozepur, 25 in Pathankot, 23 in SBS Nagar, 14 in Tarn Taran, 13 each in Mansa and Kapurthala, 12 in Fatehgarh Sahib, seven in Muktsar, six each in Faridkot and Sangrur, five each in Rupnagar and Gurdaspur, four in Fazilka and two each in Barnala and Bathinda, reveals the government's bulletin on Covid situation in the state.

Of total cases, 20 have died while 112 patients have fully cured of the infection, as per the bulletin, which said wo patients are critical and are on ventilator support.

A total of 24,868 samples have been taken so far in the state, of which, 19,316 are negative and reports of 4,780 are still awaited.

There are 640 active cases in the state, as per the bulletin.