DW BUREAU / cHANDIGARH PUNJAB ON Saturday reported six fatalities due to coronavirus and 120 fresh cases, officials said. The death toll in the state now is 98 with the coronavirus tally reaching 3,952. Four deaths were reported in Amritsar and one each in Ludhiana and Kapurthala, according to a medical bulletin. The state has reported 812 fresh COVID-19 cases since June 15. On Saturday, Jalandhar reported 47 cases, followed by Amritsar 21, Sangrur 14, Mohali 11, Ludhiana and Patiala seven each, Kapurthala four, Pathankot, Tarn Taran and Fatehgarh Sahib two each, and Moga, Mansa and Barnala one each, the bulletin said. Seven of the new patients had a travel history to Delhi and Gurgaon. Forty-two coronavirus patients were discharged, taking the number of people cured of the infection to 2,678. The state now has 1,176 active COVID-19 cases, the bulletin said. Amritsar continued to top the COVID-19 tally in the state with 754 cases, followed by 536 in Jalandhar, 496 in Ludhiana, 213 in Mohali , 206 in Patiala, 204 in Sangrur, 180 in Tarn Taran, 176 in Gurdaspur, 167 in Pathankot, 155 in Hoshiarpur, 121 in SBS Nagar, 94 in Faridkot, 87 in Fatehgarh Sahib, 84 in Rupnagar, 79 in Muktsar, 75 in Moga, 64 in Bathinda, 62 each in Ferozepur and Kapurthala, 55 in Fazilka, 39 in Mansa and 43 in Barnala, it said. Five patients are critical and on ventilator support, while 21 are on oxygen support, the bulletin said. So far, 2,35,700 samples have been taken for testing. India on Saturday saw another record spike of 14,516 COVID-19 cases, pushing the total tally to 3,95,048, with over two lakh instances of the viral infection reported in June, according to Union Health Ministry data. The death toll rose to 12,948 with 375 new fatalities, it stated. In 24 hours 9,120 COVID-19 patients have been cured taking the number of recoveries to 2,13,830. There were 1,68,269 active cases in the country and one patient has migrated. Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh said the government will cap the Covid hospitalisation and treatment rates of private hospitals, and those not adhering to the same will be shut down. The fee structure for private hospitals and clinics is expected to be finalised by Monday, the Chief Minister said during his #AskCaptain session on Facebook. Taking strict view of complaints of exorbitant fee being charges by private hospitals, the Chief Minister termed such actions as `anti-people and anti-national' and warned that the private institutions would not be allowed to indulge in such shameless profiteering at the cost of the lives of people. "If these hospitals do not agree to the government rates, we will close them down," he added. Expressing concern over the spike in Covid cases in the state, which he attributed to the large number of people coming from other places, the Chief Minister said he had sought from the Centre permission to allow the state to make Covid test certificates mandatory for all those crossing the border. Captain Amarinder said he had raised the issue with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the latter's Video Conference with chief ministers to review the Covid situation. With 87000 cars having entered Punjab from Delhi alone in recent days, and the spike in cases in the past only due to outsiders, the threat of the pandemic spiralling further was acute, said the Chief Minister. He said that he had requested the Prime Minister to allow entry of only those with valid Covid-free certificates. In fact, those leaving Punjab should also carry similar certificates to check the spread of the coronavirus into other states, he said. (editor@dailyworld.in)