DW BUREAU / cHANDIGARH As many as 703 fresh COVID-19 infections took Punjab's case count to 1,39,184 on Wednesday, while 31 more fatalities pushed the death toll to 4,389, according to a health department bulletin. The fresh cases were reported from Mohali (119), Ludhiana (103) and Jalandhar (100), among other districts, the bulletin said. Four deaths each were reported from Patiala and Mohali; three each from Kapurthala, Ludhiana and Moga; two each from Bathinda, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar and Sangrur; and one each from Amritsar, Faridkot, Fazilka, Ferozepur, Rupnagar and Tarn Taran, it stated. A total of 460 coronavirus patients were discharged after recovering from the infection, taking the number of cured persons to 1,29,549, the bulletin said. There are 5,246 active COVID-19 cases in the state, it said. Fifteen critical patients are on ventilator support, while 156 are on oxygen support, it added. So far, a total of 28,01,305 samples have been collected for testing in the state, according to the bulletin.  India's COVID-19 caseload went past 86 lakh on Wednesday, while the number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 80.13 lakh, pushing the national recovery rate to 92.79 per cent, according to the Union Health Ministry's data. With 44,281 more people testing positive for coronavirus in a span of 24 hours, the infection tally mounted to 86,36, 011, while the death toll rose to 1,27,571 after 512 new fatalities were reported, the data updated at 8 am showed. The number of active cases dropped below five lakh. At present, there are 4,94,657 active cases in the country which comprise 5.73 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated. The total recoveries have surged to 80,13,783, pushing the national recovery rate to 92.79 per cent, while COVID-19 case fatality rate stands at 1.48 per cent. India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23 and 40 lakh on September 5. It went past 50 lakh on September 16, 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11 and crossed 80 lakh on October 29. According to the ICMR, a cumulative total of 12,07,69,151 samples have been tested so far with 11,53,294 samples being tested on Tuesday. The 512 new fatalities include 110 from Maharashtra, 83 from Delhi,  53 from West Bengal, 30 from Uttar Pradesh, 28 from Kerala, 25 from Tamil Nadu, 20 each from Karnataka and Punjab. Total 1,27,571 deaths reported so far in the country include 45,435 from Maharashtra followed by 11,430 from Karnataka, 11,387 from Tamil Nadu, 7,403 from West Bengal, 7,261 from Uttar Pradesh, 7,143 from Delhi, 6,814 from Andhra Pradesh, 4,358 from Punjab and 3,770 from Gujarat. The health ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities. (editor@dailyworld.in)