Just a week after the daily Covid case count in Punjab had crossed the 4,000-mark, the state touched a new peak, breaching the 5,000-mark, with 5,456 new Covid cases and 76 deaths in the past 24 hours, as per the state bulletin, Thursday. In testing too, Punjab touched a new high, Thursday with 60,432 tests conducted. The figure of 5,456 cases a day is also nearly double the highest case count recorded during the first wave in September last year. (2896 cases on September 17, 2020) An analysis revealed that within the last eight days since April 15, Punjab has added 37,455 Covid cases, an average of 4,681 new cases daily. Ludhiana and SAS Nagar (Mohali) districts continue to record the highest cases in Punjab. With 76 fresh deaths Thursday, the Covid toll in Punjab reached 8,189 and Punjab's case fatality rate (CFR) has reached 2.56 per cent, still much higher than the national CFR of 1.16 per cent. As per the district wise break-up of 76 deaths, ten died in Amritsar, nine in Gurdaspur, seven each in Ludhiana and SAS Nagar (Mohali), five each in Bathinda, Jalandhar and Patiala, four each in Hoshiarpur, Tarn Taran and Pathankot, three each in Kapurthala and Ropar, two each in Fazilka, Ferozepur and Muktsar and one each in Moga, Barnala, Fatehgarh Sahib and Sangrur. Total infections in the state reached 3,19,719 and total active cases in Punjab are 40,584. The maximum fresh cases Thursday were recorded in SAS Nagar (931), Ludhiana (880), Amritsar (462) Patiala (448) and Bathinda (446). While 38 patients in Punjab are on 'critical and on ventilator support', 508 are on oxygen support. Meanwhile, 3,657 recovered Thursday. Meanwhile, Punjab has administered a total of 26.93 lakh doses of vaccine till Thursday. Narinder Kaur Pinky, 58, a retired teacher and daughter-in-law of renowned agriculture economist Dr Sardara Singh Johl, died of Covid at Christian Medical College and Hospital (CMCH), in Ludhiana Thursday.
