Punjab reports 104 fresh coronavirus cases; senior railway engineer dies of infection

Chandigarh, Jun 16 () Punjab reported 104 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday taking the infection tally to 3,371 while the death toll increased to 72 with a senior railway engineer succumbing to the disease, officials said.

A Senior Divisional Mechanical Engineer at the Ferozepur Railway Division, who tested positive for the virus, passed away at a hospital in Ludhiana, according to a release issued by the Ludhiana district administration.

The 55-year-old engineer, who belonged to Delhi, was suffering from blood pressure, asthma, pneumonia and fever, the release said.

With his death, the toll in the state rose to 72, according to a bulletin.

Among fresh cases, 31 were reported in Jalandhar, 22 in Ludhiana, nine each in Amritsar and Patiala, six in Pathankot, four each in Mohali, Kapurthala and Sangrur, three each in Hoshiarpur and Fazilka, two each in Gurdaspur and Ropar, and one each in Faridkot, SBS Nagar, Ferozepur, Tarn Taran and Fatehgarh Sahib.

Of them, 14 people had travel history to other parts of the country, including Delhi, Mumbai, Haryana and Chennai.

Eighteen coronavirus patients recovered from infection and were discharged from various hospitals, taking the count of cured persons to 2,461, the bulletin stated.

There are 838 active cases in the state as of now. One patient is critical and is on ventilator support while 10 are on oxygen support, according to the bulletin.

Amritsar continued to lead the COVID-19 tally in the state with 642 cases, followed by 409 in Ludhiana, 378 in Jalandhar, 171 in Gurdaspur, 169 in Tarn Taran, 179 in Mohali, 178 in Patiala, 162 in Sangrur, 151 in Pathankot, 144 in Hoshiarpur, 121 in SBS Nagar, 88 in Faridkot, 82 in Rupnagar, 78 in Fatehgarh Sahib, 73 in Muktsar, 71 in Moga, 57 in Bathinda, 53 in Fazilka, 52 in Ferozepur, 48 in Kapurthala, 34 in Mansa and 31 in Barnala.

A total of 1,98,211 samples have been taken so far for testing in the state. CHS VSD SMN SMN