Punjab reports nearly 3,000 new Covid cases, 69 deaths in last 24 hours

Punjab on Sunday reported 2,963 fresh COVID-19 cases pushing the cumulative total to 2,31,734. For the past few days, the state has been logging over 2,500 cases on a daily basis. On Saturday, the state logged 2,820 fresh infections. While on Wednesday and Thursday, it recorded 2,700 and 2,634 new cases. The active cases touched 23,917 today.

Of the infections today, Jalandhar logged 498 cases, Ludhiana reported 308 and as many as 307 people were tested positive for the virus in Patiala. The total number of tests conducted across the state is 33,887.

With 69 people succumbing to the deadly virus, the death toll rose to 6,690. Also, the state saw 2,155 discharges taking the total recovery from the infection to 2,01,127.

Punjab is one of six states of the country that accounted for 79.57 pc of new COVID cases, as per the Union Health Ministry.

"Six States--Maharashtra, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh continue to report a surge in the COVID daily new cases. 79.57% of the new cases are reported from these 6 states. 62,258 new cases were registered in the last 24 hours," read the release by Union Health Ministry.

India, meanwhile, clocked in 62,714 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the cumulative tally to 1,19,71,624. This is the biggest spike in new infections recorded in the country this year and the highest in over 160 days. This is despite the fact that the new infections reported only a slight jump as compared to Saturday, when the country had seen 62,258 more people testing positive for the virus. India had last seen over 62,000 new cases on 16 October last year.

The Centre on Saturday chaired a high-level meet with 12 states and union territories (UTs) reporting a surge in Covid-19 cases. States and UTs were advised to focus on stringent containment and public health measures in 46 high burden districts.

On the other hand, the country breached 60 million mark in covid-19 vaccination coverage on Sunday. It surpassed 6,02,69,782 vaccine doses cumulatively through 9,85,018 sessions, as per the union health ministry"s provisional report till 7 AM on Sunday.

The countrywide vaccination drive was rolled out on 16th Jan 2021 with vaccination of healthcare workers (HCWs) and vaccination of the frontline workers (FLWs) started from 2nd Feb 2021.The next phase of covid-19 vaccination commenced from 1st March 2021 for those who are over 60 years of age and for people aged 45 and above with specified co-morbid conditions. Starting April 1, the government has now opened vaccination for all persons above 45 years of age irrespective of any comorbid condition.

(With inputs from agencies