Chandigarh, Mar 6 (PTI) The COVID-19 death toll in Punjab rose to 5,910 on Saturday with 12 more fatalities, while 1,179 new cases pushed the infection count to 1,87,348, a medical bulletin issued here said.

Punjab has been witnessing a surge in the number of daily COVID-19 cases for nearly four weeks.

The number of active cases also jumped to 7,164 on Saturday from 6,661 the previous day, it said.

Of the new cases, SBS Nagar reported the maximum 156 cases, followed by 154 from Jalandhar, 146 from Ludhiana and 137 from Hoshiarpur.

A total of 644 coronavirus patients were discharged after recovering from infection, taking the overall recoveries to 1,74,274, as per bulletin.

There are 20 critical patients who are on ventilator support while 131 are on oxygen support, the bulletin said.

A total of 51,59,683 samples have been collected for testing so far in the state, it said. 

Meanwhile, Chandigarh also witnessed a surge in new cases on Saturday with 122 more people getting infected.

With this, the infection count has risen to 22,238, according to a medical bulletin.

No COVID-related fatality was reported on Saturday. The death toll stands at 355, as per bulletin.

The number of active cases rose from 587 on Friday to 675 on Saturday, it said.

A total of 34 patients were discharged after they recovered from the infection, taking the overall recoveries to 21,208, the bulletin said.

A total of 2,65,479 samples have been taken for testing so far and of them, 2,42,276 have tested negative while reports of 138 samples were awaited, it added. PTI CHS

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)