DW BUREAU / Ludhiana A 48-year-old government schoolteacher, who had tested positive for COVID-19, died at a private hospital here on Saturday, following which her 12 colleagues and three students also returned positive results, an official said. Schools in the state reopened for classes 5 to 12 from January 7 after a government order. The deceased teacher taught maths at the Government Senior Secondary School Galib Klan in Jagraon.Additional Deputy Commissioner Neeru Katyal said 12 teachers and three students of the school have tested positive for the infection.The school has now been shut and the samples of other students and the staff was being taken for testing, he said. The Punjab government had recently decided to reopen schools for students of classes 5 to 12 from January 7. State Education minister Vijay Inder Singla had said the decision was taken following a persistent demand by parents. Punjab reported 10 coronavirus deaths and 212 fresh cases on Saturday, pushing the overall figures to 5,553 fatalities and 1,71,733 infections, officials said. There are 2,293 active COVID-19 cases in the state as on Saturday, according to a medical bulletin. Of the fresh cases, Mohali accounted for 39, Hoshiarpur 31 and Ludhiana 29. A total of 232 coronavirus patients were discharged in a 24-hour period after recovering from the infection, taking the number of recoveries to 1,63,887, as per the bulletin. As many as 11 patients are on ventilator support ,while 77 are on oxygen support, the bulletin said. A total of 43,48,641 samples have been collected for testing so far in the state, it said. With 14,256 fresh cases, India's COVID-19 tally climbed to 1,06,39,684 on Saturday, while 1,03,00,838 patients have recuperated so far, pushing the national recovery rate to 96.81 per cent, according to the health ministry.There are 1,85,662 active cases of the coronavirus infection in the country currently, which accounts for only 1.78 per cent of the total caseload, according to data released by the ministry. The COVID-19 caseload has mounted to 1,06,39,684 and the death toll due to the disease has climbed to 1,53,184, with the novel coronavirus claiming 152 more lives in the country in a span of 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed. The COVID-19 case fatality rate stood at 1.44 per cent.According to the ICMR, a total of 19,09,85,119 samples have so far been tested for the viral disease in the country, including 8,37,095 on Friday. India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7 last year. (editor@dailyworld.in)