Chandigarh, May 12 (PTI) Punjab on Wednesday registered 197 more coronavirus deaths, taking the toll to 11,111, while 8,347 new cases took the infection tally to 4,67,539, according to a medical bulletin.

The number of active cases rose from 76,856 on Tuesday to 79,963.

Twenty-eight deaths were reported from Ludhiana, 20 each from Patiala and Bathinda, 19 from Amritsar and 14 from Sangrur, among fatalities reported in the past 24-hours.

Ludhiana registered the maximum number of cases at 1,215 followed by 874 in Bathinda, 821 in Jalandhar, 723 in Fazilka and 713 in Mohali, among daily fresh cases.

A total of 4,971 coronavirus patients were discharged after recovering from infection, taking the number of cured persons to 3,76,465, according to the bulletin.

There are 342 critical patients who are on ventilator support while 9,736 are on oxygen support, the bulletin said.

A total of 79,32,936 samples have been collected for testing so far in the state, it said.

Meanwhile, Chandigarh registered 776 fresh cases, taking the count to 52,633, according to a medical bulletin.

Fourteen more people succumbed to COVID-19 in the Union territory, taking the toll to 599. The number of active cases was 8,528, as per the bulletin.

A total of 859 patients were discharged after they recovered from the infection, taking the number of cured persons to 43,506, as per the bulletin.

A total of 4,47,896 samples have been taken for testing so far and of them, 3,94,118 tested negative while reports of 80 samples were awaited, the bulletin stated.

Meanwhile, the Chandigarh administration said it has decided to start vaccination for the 18-44 age group from May 14.

The beneficiaries will have to book the slots for vaccination, an official release said.

The Centre has allotted 33,000 doses of vaccine for the 18-44 age group in Chandigarh.

(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)