Eight more die, 231 fresh cases in Punjab

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 11

With 231 fresh cases in the past 24 hours, the state count of Covid-19 cases has reached 7,587. Eight deaths were reported in the state today.

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Two deaths each were reported from Patiala and Jalandhar, and one each was reported from Pathankot, Sangrur, Ludhiana and Bathinda. With these deaths, the number of casualties has reached 195. Besides, 59 patients are on oxygen support and nine are on ventilator support.

In Sangrur, a 62-year old Malerkotla resident died at the Government Medical College and Hospital, Patiala, last night,

after breathlessness and other problems. The deceased did not have any co-morbidities.

The Secretary, Regional Transport Authority, Jalandhar, tested positive today. This has taken the district tally to 1,177. A 58-year-old man from Raipur Rasoolpur and another from Gandhi Nagar died today. Of the 75 who tested positive today, 14 are employees of the Mehatpur police station. There has also been a spike in cases in Nakodar and Shahkot.

In the highest single-day spike, Patiala today reported 55 cases of Covid-19. After the sudden rise in the number of cases, many areas in the district have been declared micro-containment zones. In Samana, the Health Department declared three micro-containment zones after 17 cases were reported on Saturday.

As per the state media bulletin, the districts which were badly affected by the virus in the past 24 hours include Jalandhar with 77 cases, Patiala with 55 cases, Ludhiana with 29 cases, Amritsar with 19 and SAS Nagar with 12 cases.

Govt caps charges for Covid test in Private labs

• Chandigarh: The state government has decided to cap the price of testing for Covid-19 at private laboratories to Rs2,400. Earlier, the labs were charging around Rs4,000 for the test.
• In an order issued on July 8, Additional Chief Secretary Anurag Aggarwal directed that no private laboratory should charge more than Rs2400 for RT-PCR test for Covid-19, inclusive of GST/taxes, if any.
• Besides, it has been ordered that all private laboratories shall share the data pertaining to the results of these tests with the state government and the ICMR on real time basis through the ICMR portal. TNS