Ludhiana’s toll crosses 1, 400-mark as 17 more succumb

25-year-old man from Jandiali village is the youngest fatality in 24 hours; 1, 404 others test positive

Seventeen more persons from the district lost their battle to Covid-19 in the last 24 hours even as 1, 404 others were found infected, health department officials said. The youngest fatality was a 25-year-old man from Jandiali village who had no pre-existing co morbid conditions.

A health worker collecting swab samples for Covid testing at the civil surgeon’s office in Ludhiana on Sunday. (Harsimar Pal Singh/HT)

Spelling more trouble for the already overburdened health infrastructure, the active patients’ count crossed the 9,000-mark to settle at 9, 870 on Sunday. Health department officials say the number of active cases will cross the 10,000-mark on Monday.

Ludhiana has been seeing a steady rise in daily infections since April 19, when the single-day infection count crossed the 700-mark for the first time.

In the last 10 days, the district has recorded over 1, 000 cases four times. The cumulative count of cases since the outbreak last March stands at 57, 590, of which 46, 310 have recovered.

The latest fatalities include nine women and eight men, the oldest being an 80-year-old man from Tajpur Road. The others include a 79-year-old woman from Abdullapur Basti, a 72-year-old woman from Gaushala Road, a 68-year-old woman from Barewal Road, a 65-year-old man from Noorwala Road, a 62-year-old woman from Mundian Kalan, a 61-year-old man from Madhopuri, three 60-year-old women from Subash Nagar, Prem Nagar and Giaspura, a 56-year-old woman from Ram Nagar, a 54-year-old woman residing near Jyoti Model School, a 54-year-old man from Sundar Nagar, a 49-year-old man from Azad Nagar, a 45-year-old man from Phullanwal and a 45-year-old man from Tibba Road, besides the 25-year-old man from Jandiali village.

As of Sunday, there were 41 patients availing Level-3 (critical care) facilities in various government and private hospitals in the city. Apart from that, 1, 451 patients were admitted in the isolation wards of various private hospitals in the city which are running full to capacity, while 138 are in government hospitals.