DW BUREAU / chandigarh The steepest single-day spike of 1,704 coronavirus cases pushed Punjab's tally to 34,400 on Tuesday, while the death toll reached 898 with 35 more people succumbing to the viral disease, according to a medical bulletin. Eight deaths were reported from Ludhiana, four each from Amritsar, Patiala and Sangrur, three from Mohali and SBS Nagar, two each from Tarn Taran and Rupnagar and one each from Kapurthala, Faridkot, Fatehgarh Sahib, Jalandhar and Muktsar. Among the districts which reported new cases include Ludhiana (483), Patiala (338), Jalandhar (132), Mohali (103), Bathinda (94), Fatehgarh Sahib (52), Sangrur (52), Hoshiarpur (50), Muktsar (49), Amritsar (46), Fazilka (46) and Faridkot (46). A total of 1,582 coronavirus patients were discharged after recovering from the disease on Monday. So far 21,762 people in the state have been cured of the infection leaving 11,740 active COVID-19 cases, the bulletin stated. Thirty-seven patients are critical and are on ventilator support while 336 are on oxygen support, it stated, adding that 8,01,990 samples have been collected for COVID-19 tests so far. A spike of 55,079 cases took India's COVID-19 tally past 27 lakh on Tuesday just a day after it crossed the 26-lakh mark, while 19.77 lakh people have so far recuperated from the disease pushing the recovery rate to 73.18 per cent, according to the Union Health Ministry data. The COVID-19 caseload stood at 27,02,742, while the death toll climbed to 51,797 with 876 people succumbing to the disease in a span of 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed. Case fatality rate stands at 1.92 per cent. There are 6,73,166 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country which is 24.91 per cent of the total caseload, while the number of recoveries has risen to 19,77,779. India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7.   According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), a cumulative total of 3,09,41,264 samples have been tested up to August 17 with 8,99,864 samples being tested on Monday. Of the 876 fresh deaths reported, 228 are from Maharashtra, 120 from Tamil Nadu, 115 from Karnataka, 82 from Andhra Pradesh, 66 from Uttar Pradesh, 45 from West Bengal, 51 from Punjab, 23 from Madhya Pradesh, 18 from Delhi, 15 from Gujarat, 13 from Kerala, 12 from Haryana, 11 from Rajasthan and 10 from Odisha. Nine fatalities have been reported from Chhattisgarh, eight each from Assam and Telangana, seven each from Bihar and Goa, six each from Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand, four from Puducherry, three from  Tripura, while Andmana and Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh and Manipur have registered one fatality each. Meanwhile, AAP Punjab senior leader and Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Punjab Assembly Harpal Singh Cheema on Tuesday said the MLAs, ministers and top government officers tested positive for coronavirus should be treated in the government hospitals and corona care centres in the state like any other citizen, demanding special guidelines in this regard. In a statement issued to the media from party headquarters in Chandigarh on Tuesday, Harpal Singh said that the cabinet minister Gurpreet Singh Kangar, deputy speaker Ajaiv Singh Bhatti, MLAs Manpreet Singh Ayali, Nazan Singh Mansahia, and IAS and IPS Officers and other VIPs, who had been tested positive for Corona, should be treated at government hospitals and corona care centres, like others citizen undergoing treatment there. "I pray for the fast recovery of all," he said. (editor@dailyworld.in)