DW BUREAU / chandigarh two ias and 13 PCS officers as well as two other government officials were confirmed positive for coronavirus in Punjab, officials said on Friday, as the state battles surge in infections. Punjab Rural Development and Panchayats Minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa underwent a COVID-19 test after an IAS officer, who has contracted the disease, was present in a meeting attended by him, the officials said. "Two IAS officers and 13 Punjab Civil Services (PCS) officers have tested positive for coronavirus so far," an official of the Punjab Health Department said on Friday. "The contact tracing in these cases is underway," another official said. Besides, a Senior Superintendent of Police and a Civil Surgeon have tested positive for the virus, officials said. An official said samples of 34 PCS officers were collected and of which 13 tested positive and 16 negative. However, the reports in five cases are still pending, he added. An IAS officer tested positive for the virus after his wife confirmed positive for the infection, the officials said. He on Thursday had attended a meeting where Bajwa was also present. "I will undergo a test for coronavirus as my director has tested positive," he said on Friday. Later during the day, the samples of the minister were collected for testing, the officials said. Several PCS officers had attended a meeting of the Punjab Civil Services Officers Association in Chandigarh on July 3 to protest against the arrest of a fellow official. After several PCS officers and other senior officials got infected with the contagion, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Thursday had stressed the need to raise the guard to tackle the pandemic even further. He had also asked Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan to issue standard operating procedures for the government officers' meetings or visits to other offices, making it clear that the spread of infection among the critical manpower due to the casual attitude was not acceptable. The government has banned the entry of visitors (general public) to the Punjab Civil Secretariat 1 and 2 here in view of the spread of COVID-19, officials said on Friday. The principal secretary of the General Administration department has signed an order in this regard, a state government statement said. It said the decision has been taken keeping "in view the growing spread of COVID-19." According to the statement, in case of any difficulty faced by the public in this regard, the Additional Secretary Administration can be contacted. It said all citizens are urged to cooperate with the government in its efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19. Notably, Punjab has over 7,000 novel coronavirus cases and has reported 183 deaths. India saw yet another  record single-day jump of 26,506 COVID-19 cases pushing its tally to 7,93,802 on Friday, while the death toll climbed to 21,604 with 475 people succumbing to the infection, according to the Union Health Ministry data. The number of tests for detection of COVID-19 has crossed the 11-million mark. According to ICMR, a cumulative total of 1,10,24,491 samples have been tested up to July 9 with 2,83,659 samples being tested on Thursday. The number of recoveries stands at 4,95,512 while there are 2,76,685 active cases of coronavirus infection presently in the country, the updated data at 8 am showed. "Thus, around 62.42 per cent of patients have recovered so far," an official said. The total number of confirmed cases included foreigners. Of the 475 new deaths reported, 219 are from Maharashtra, 65 from Tamil Nadu, 45 from Delhi, 27 from West Bengal, 17 from Uttar Pradesh, 16 from Karnataka, 15 from Gujarat, 13 from Andhra Pradesh, 9 from Rajasthan, eight from Bihar, seven from Telangana, six from Assam, five each from Haryana,Madhya Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab, four from Odisha and one from Chhattisgarh, Goa, Jhakhand and Meghalaya. Of the total 21,604 deaths reported so far, Maharashtra tops the tally with 9,667 fatalities followed by Delhi with 3,258 deaths, Gujarat with 2,008, Tamil Nadu with 1,765, Uttar Pradesh with 862, West Bengal with 854, Madhya Pradesh with 634, Rajasthan with 491 and Karnataka with 486. The COVID-19 death toll reached 331 in Telangana, 287 in Haryana, 277 in Andhra Pradesh, 183 in Punjab, 154 in Jammu and Kashmir, 115 in Bihar, 52 in Odisha, 46 in Uttarakhand and 27 in Kerala. Jharkhand has registered 23 deaths, Assam 22, Chhattisgarh 15, Puducherry 14, Himachal Pradesh 11, Goa nine, Chandigarh seven, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya two each, Tripura and Ladakh have reported one fatality each, according to the Health Ministry. More than 70 per cent deaths took place due to comorbidities, it said. Maharashtra has reported the highest number of cases at 2,30,599. (editor@dailyworld.in)