DW BUREAU / chandigarh The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 5,485 in Punjab with 12 more fatalities while 242 new cases took the infection count to 1,70,191 on Friday. There are 2,739 active COVID-19 cases in the state as of now, according to a medical bulletin.Mohali reported 37 new cases, Ludhiana 35 and Patiala 33, among the fresh cases witnessed in the state. A total of 257 coronavirus patients were discharged after recovering from the infection, taking the number of those recovered to 1,61,967, as per the bulletin. Thirteen critical patients are on ventilator support while 88 are on oxygen support, the bulletin said. A total of 41,97,346 samples have been collected for testing so far in the state, it said. India's COVID-19 caseload rose to 1,05,27,683  with 15,590 people testing positive for the infection in a day, while recoveries have surged to 1,01,62,738, according to Union health ministry data updated on Friday. The country's death toll increased to 1,51,918 with 191 new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 1,01,62,738 pushing the national COVID-19 recovery rate to 96.53 per cent, while the COVID-19 case fatality rate stands at 1.44 per cent. The COVID-19 active caseload remained below three lakh. There are 2,13,027 active coronavirus infections in the country which comprise 2.02 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated. India's COVID-19 tally had crossed 20 lakh on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19. According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), 18,49,62,401 samples have been tested up to January 14 with 7,30,096 samples being tested on Thursday. Even as he prepared to kickstart the process of vaccination of 1.74 lakh health workers, with 40,000 to be covered every day over the next five days in the first phase, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Friday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking free vaccine delivery to the poor population of the state. The Chief Minister, while acknowledging the receipt of 204,500 doses of Covishield vaccine, thanked the Prime Minister for making it available on priority to the healthcare workers of the state and Central governments in Punjab. At the same time, he earnestly requested the Prime Minister "to consider providing free vaccine to the poor population with a view to lessen the disease burden and also ensuring a check on the further spread of transmission thereby allowing more economic activity." Referring to reports citing some Central government sources that, apart from the healthcare workers and frontline workers, the remaining population may not be provided free vaccine, Amarinder Singh pointed out in his letter that "the people of the state have gone through a very difficult time due to Covid wherein economic activities have nosedived and the economy has still not recovered from this shock." "It would be difficult for the poorer sections of society to pay for the vaccination," he said. The Chief Minister said in his letter that all steps are in place to ensure vaccination of healthcare workers on priority, with frontline workers to follow in the next phase. The state has adequate capacity for storing as well as transportation of the vaccine, he wrote, adding that sufficient number of vaccination sites have been identified and all logistics tied up. Adequate number of vaccinators have been identified, and trained and sufficient number of teams have been mobilised and trained to manage the vaccination sessions. Pointing out that "the Covid-19 pandemic has been an unparalleled disaster in living memory, and heavy expenditure had to be incurred in our Covid response," the Chief Minister noted that his government had already requested the Centre that the accumulated balances with the state in the state disaster relief fund may be permitted to be used as necessary for Covid response. "The MHA may kindly approve this to allow pending payments to be cleared," he urged. (editor@dailyworld.in)