Police force shopkeepers to close shops during the start of lockdown imposed by Punjab State government to curb the spread of coronavirus cases.
The Punjab government on Wednesday announced that all shops in Ludhiana can remain open till 3 pm from Thursday as new Covid cases in the city witnesses a downfall.
"Due to decreasing number of COVID cases in Ludhiana, all shops can now remain open till 3 pm and home delivery by restaurants till 9 pm from tomorrow," Ludhiana Deputy Commissioner.
Punjab's COVID-19 caseload surged to 5,48,231 on Tuesday as 4,798 more people tested positive for the disease while the death toll climbed to 13,642 with 176 more fatalities, according to a medical bulletin.
Of the latest deaths, 19 were reported from Ludhiana, 17 from Sangrur and 16 from Amritsar, the bulletin stated.
Jalandhar reported the highest number of fresh cases at 536, followed by 461 in Ludhiana, 376 in Mohali and 352 in Amritsar, it said.
The number of active COVID-19 cases in Punjab dropped to 53,127 from 54,996 on Monday. The state's positivity rate stands at 7.28 per cent, the bulletin stated.
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There are 386 critical patients who are on ventilator support, 958 other critical patients and 6,357 patients on oxygen support, it said.
As many as 6,451 Covid patients recovered in a day. With this, the number of cured persons has reached 4,81,462, it said.
So far, 88,50,305 samples have been collected for testing in the state, according to the bulletin.
Meanwhile, Chandigarh recorded 258 fresh COVID-19 cases on Tuesday that took the union territory's infection tally to 58,992 while five more fatalities pushed the death toll to 714, a medical bulletin said.
The number of active cases dropped to 4,063 from 4,428 on Monday, it said.
The total number of cured persons in Chandigarh increased to 54,215 as 618 more coronavirus patients were discharged after they recovered from the infection, the bulletin stated. So far, 4,91,148 samples have been taken for testing.
While 4,30,958 samples have tested negative, reports of 38 are awaited, it said.
(With PTI inputs)
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