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Sharpest surge of 462 cases in a day takes Ludhiana’s tally past 8,000 mark
The district’s death toll due to coronavirus also rose to 288 with eight more people succumbing to the disease.
With 462 fresh Covid-19 infections, Ludhiana recorded its highest single-day spike in cases, which also caused the tally to cross the 8,000 mark on Friday.
The last steepest surge was recorded just a day ago with 398 cases.
The district’s death toll due to coronavirus also rose to 288 with eight more people succumbing to the disease.
Notably, among the total 288 deaths so far, 200 (69%) have occurred in August alone.
Of the total 8,148 cases in Ludhiana now, 5,526 (67.8%) patients have recovered, leaving 2,334 active cases.
Friday’s fatalities included seven males and one female.
The male patients are a 90-year-old from Mundia Khurd, a 70-year-old from Bahadurke Road, another 70-year-old from BRS Nagar, a 62-year-old from Jagraon, a 60-year-old from Bajra village, a 47-year-old from Tajpur Road and a 35-year-old from Lohara.
The eighth fatality is a 40-year-old woman from Dhandari Khurd.
Among those who tested positive on Friday, 117 patients have influenza-like illness (ILI) and 129 are contacts of already positive patients. These include 14 police personnel, seven healthcare workers, six domestic travellers, eight undertrials, eight pregnant women and two MC councillors.
TWO FEMALE COUNCILLORS TEST POSITIVE
Two more MC councillors were found positive for Covid-19 on Friday.
Congress councillor Ravinder Kaur represents ward number 7 and BJP councillor Manju Aggarwal ward number 57.
Kaur’s husband Monu Khinda and four other family members of Manju, including her husband and former councillor Inder Aggarwal, have also contracted the infection.
Health officials said both councillors are under home quarantine.
BJP leader Inder Aggarwal said, “After my wife tested positive, samples of all family members were sent for testing. Besides me, my younger son and two granddaughters have also tested positive. Manju was admitted at CMCH after she was having trouble breathing, but everyone else is asymptomatic. She is also stable.”
He added that they were not sure of the source of infection, as they dealt with the public.
Three other councillors – Manpreet Grewal, Rakesh Prashar and Sukhdev Sheera – have already tested positive for the disease. Besides them, Congress MLA (Ludhiana East) Sanjay Talwar, four of his family members, and SAD MLA (Dakha) Manpreet Singh Ayali had also been infected.
Among leaders of various political parties, Congress’ Kamaljit Singh Karwal, Ashok Prashar Pappi and party’s former district president (R) Gurdev Lapran, besides BJP’s Gurdev Sharma Debi, Sunil Moudgil and former district president Ravinder Arora had also contracted the infection in the past.
