DW BUREAU / Chandigarh The COVID-19 death toll in Punjab rose to 5,910 on Saturday with 12 more fatalities, while 1,179 new cases pushed the infection count to 1,87,348, a medical bulletin issued here said. Punjab has been witnessing a surge in the number of daily COVID-19 cases for nearly four weeks. The number of active cases also jumped to 7,164 on Saturday from 6,661 the previous day, it said. Of the new cases, SBS Nagar reported the maximum 156 cases, followed by 154 from Jalandhar, 146 from Ludhiana and 137 from Hoshiarpur. A total of 644 coronavirus patients were discharged after recovering from infection, taking the overall recoveries to 1,74,274, as per bulletin. There are 20 critical patients who are on ventilator support while 131 are on oxygen support, the bulletin said. A total of 51,59,683 samples have been collected for testing so far in the state, it said.  Meanwhile, Chandigarh also witnessed a surge in new cases on Saturday with 122 more people getting infected. With this, the infection count has risen to 22,238, according to a medical bulletin. No COVID-related fatality was reported on Saturday. The death toll stands at 355, as per bulletin. The number of active cases rose from 587 on Friday to 675 on Saturday, it said. A total of 34 patients were discharged after they recovered from the infection, taking the overall recoveries to 21,208, the bulletin said. A total of 2,65,479 samples have been taken for testing so far and of them, 2,42,276 have tested negative while reports of 138 samples were awaited, it added. India's COVID-19 tally rose to 1,11,92,088 with over 18,000 fresh cases being reported in a span of 24 hours in the country after 36 days, while active cases registered an increase for the fourth consecutive day on Saturday and were recorded at 1,80,304, according to the Union Health Ministry. The death toll reached 1,57,656 with 108 more fatalities, while a total of 18,327 new cases were registered in a day, the ministry's data showed. On January 29, 18,855 new infections were recorded in a span of 24 hours after which the daily rise in fresh cases remained below 18,000. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 1,08,54,128 which translates to a national COVID-19 recovery rate of 96.98 per cent, while the case fatality rate stands at 1.41 per cent. The COVID-19 active caseload has increased to 1,80,304 which now comprises 1.61 per cent of the total infections. Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have reported a high number of COVID-19 daily new cases, cumulatively accounting for 82 per cent of the new cases reported in a span of 24 hours, the ministry said. India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20 lakh-mark 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. (editor@dailyworld.in)