DW BUREAU / chandigarh Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh quarantined himself after two Congress MLAs who met him during the assembly session here on Friday tested positive for COVID-19. The MLAs, Nirmal Singh and Kulbir Singh Zira, got tested for the disease after the one-day monsoon session. "Punjab chief minister @capt amarinder has decided to go into 7-day self quarantine, as per government protocol and the advise of his doctors, after two MLAs who met him in the Vidhan Sabha tested positive for #COVID19," tweeted Raveen Thukral, the media advisor to the chief minister. Singh and Zira represent Shutrana and Zira seats, respectively. "He (Nirmal Singh) got himself tested on August 25 and then his report was negative. Based on this report, he entered the House," Speaker Rana K P Singh said. After Singh felt feverish on Friday, he got himself tested again and was found positive for the disease, the speaker said, adding that the MLA was in the House for about 15 minutes. The speaker said his primary contacts would be traced and tested for the infection. Zira got himself tested for COVID-19 after the session, Health minister Balbir Singh Sidhu said.The 12th session of the 15th Vidhan Sabha began at 11 am here with strict protocols in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The speaker had made a coronavirus negative test report mandatory for ministers, MLAs, officers and employees to attend the session.Only one member per bench was allowed to sit in the House to ensure social distancing. Fifty-one more fatalities linked to COVID-19 pushed the death toll to 1,307 in Punjab while 1,555 new cases brought the infection tally to 49,378 in the state on Friday, according to a medical bulletin. Twelve new deaths were reported from Ludhiana, 11 from Ludhiana and rest were reported from other districts including Bathinda, Barnala, Gurdaspur, Kapurthala and Mohali, the bulletin said. Among districts which reported fresh COVID-19 cases included Jalandhar (211), Gurdaspur (182), Ludhiana (140), Patiala (109) and Faridkot (115). A total of 2,036 novel coronavirus patients were discharged from hospitals after recovering from the infection. The state has so far seen 33,008 recoveries from COVID-19. The active COVID-19 case count stands at 15,063 in the state, according to the bulletin.Sixty-eight critical patients are on ventilator support while 491 are on oxygen support, it said. With a collection of 19,733 more samples for COVID-19 testing, the figure of total samples taken so far for testing has reached 10,07,852 in the state, it added. A record single-day spike of 77,266 COVID-19 cases pushed India's virus tally to 33,87,500, while the recoveries surged to 25,83,948 on Friday, according to the Union Health Ministry data.The death toll climbed to 61,529 with 1,057 people succumbing to the diseases in a span of 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed. The recovery rate was recorded at 76.28 per cent while the COVID-19 case fatality rate has further declined to 1.82 per cent. There are 7,42,023 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country which comprises 21.90 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated. India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7 and went past 30 lakh on August 23.  (editor@dailyworld.in)