By PTI
CHANDIGARH: Punjab on Saturday registered 201 more Covid-related fatalities, taking the death toll to 13,089, while 5,421 fresh cases pushed the tally to 5,33,973, according to a medical bulletin.
The state’s single-day recoveries outnumbered the fresh cases, with 7,363 discharges.
The number of active cases too dropped from 63,470 on Friday to 61,203 on Saturday, the bulletin said.
Twenty deaths each were reported from Bathinda and Patiala, 19 from Amritsar, 17 from Ludhiana and 16 from Mohali, among others.
Ludhiana reported a maximum of 582 fresh cases, followed by 555 in Mohali, 445 in Jalandhar and 411 in Bathinda, among others.
The state’s positivity rate marginally dropped from 6.92 per cent on Friday to 6.60 per cent on Saturday, the bulletin said.
With 7,363 recoveries in the past 24 hours, the number of cured persons in Punjab reached 4,59,681.
There are 381 critical patients who are on ventilator support, 1,127 other critical patients and 7,280 are on oxygen support, the bulletin said.
A total of 86,36,245 samples have been collected for testing so far in the state, it said.
Meanwhile, Chandigarh has registered 392 fresh COVID-19 cases.
Twelve more people died of the infection, taking the toll in the Union Territory to 692.
The number of active cases dropped from 5,675 on Friday to 5,265 on Saturday, the bulletin said.
A total of 52,172 patients have been cured of the contagion so far, it said.
As many as 4,81,446 samples were tested for COVID-19 so far and of them, 4,22,124 tested negative while reports of 86 samples were awaited.
The Punjab government on Saturday declared summer vacation in all schools from May 24 to June 23, according to a statement.
State Education Minister Vijay Inder Singla said all government, semi-government and private schools across the state will remain closed during the period.
The cabinet minister said due to the COVID-19 pandemic, educational institutions were already closed for students and now for a period of one month, schools will remain closed for teachers and other staff too.
The minister, in the official statement, said the state government has continuously been taking precautionary measures for the safety of people in the pandemic.
Singla said teachers have been teaching students with the help of various modes, including mobile applications and TV channels as the schools remained shut due to coronavirus.
