DW BUREAU / Chandigarh Punjab registered 688 fresh cases of the novel coronavirus on Wednesday, taking the tally to 5,89,828, while 46 more fatalities pushed the toll to 15,698, according to a medical bulletin. The number of active cases dropped to 10,046 from 10,802 on Tuesday. New fatalities linked to the virus were reported from several districts including Amritsar, Barnala, Bathinda, Fazilka and Gurdaspur, the bulletin said. Sixty-nine fresh cases were registered in Patiala, followed by 65 in Jalandhar and 59 in Bathinda. The state's Covid positivity rate stood at 1.33 per cent. With 1,383 more recoveries from the infection, the recovery count reached 5,64,084 in Punjab, according to the bulletin. There are 164 critical Covid patients who are on ventilator support, 507 other critical patients and 2,243 are on oxygen support, the bulletin said. A total of 1,01,88,326 samples have been collected for COVID-19 testing in the state, it said. The Union Territory of Chandigarh reported 41 new cases of the coronavirus that raised its tally to 61,241 on Wednesday, according to a medical bulletin. Two more people died of COVID-19, taking the toll to 799, it said. The number of active cases dropped to 462 from 486 the day before, the bulletin said. The recovery count rose to 59,980 with 63 more patients being discharged after recovering from the infection in Chandigarh. A total of 5,44,309 samples have been taken for testing so far and 4,81,819 of them tested negative while reports of 13 samples are awaited, according to the bulletin. A single day rise of 62,224 new coronavirus infections were reported taking India's total tally of COVID-19 cases to 2,96,33,105, while the active cases were recorded below nine lakh after 70 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Wednesday. The COVID-19 death toll climbed to 3,79,573 with 2,542 fresh fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed The active cases further declined to 8,65,432 comprising 2.92 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 95.80 per cent. A net decline of 47,946 cases has been recorded in the COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours. Also, 19,30,987 tests were conducted on Monday taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for detection of COVID-19 in the country to 38,33,06,971. The daily positivity rate dropped to 3.22 per cent . It has been less than five per cent for nine consecutive days, the ministry said, adding the weekly positivity rate has declined to 4.17 per cent. (editor@dailyworld.in)