566 Covid positive, eight dead in past 24 hours

New Delhi/Chandigarh, Feb 24

Even though active Covid cases nationally remained below 1.5 lakh today for the third straight day, settling at 1,46,907, the Centre deputed multidisciplinary teams to 10 states, including Punjab, showing consistent rise in daily cases for a week.

Punjab remained a cause for concern as it reported the second highest 24-hour rise in active cases after Maharashtra today. While Maharashtra reported the highest daily rise in active cases in the country today adding 298 cases, Punjab was second with 128 cases.

The state reported 566 Covid cases and eight deaths in the past 24 hours. Such high number of cases have been reported after a long time as for the past two weeks, the average daily cases has remained around 300.

Fully prepared

The state govt is fully equipped and prepared to combat the possible fresh wave but the citizens should also follow appropriate Covid behaviour. —Vini Mahajan, Chief Secretary

As per a media bulletin released on Wednesday, the total number of cases has reached 1,79,819 and number of deaths reached 5,786.

At present, 82 patients are on oxygen support and nine on ventilator support. The state reported eight deaths in the past 24 hours. In the district-wise breakup, Amritsar, Hoshiarpur and Kapurthala reported two deaths each, Ferozepur and Jalandhar reported one death each.

Multi-disciplinary teams have reached Punjab and other states for supporting the local administrations for targeted Covid response. The Centre today also wrote to the state to increase RT-PCR testing. In his letter to states, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan has exhorted focus on measures to break the chain of transmission and ensure that RT-PCR testing is amplified to flush out hitherto undetected cases. — TNS