DW BUREAU / Chandigarh Punjab on Wednesday registered 197 more coronavirus deaths, taking the toll to 11,111, while 8,347 new cases took the infection tally to 4,67,539, according to a medical bulletin. The number of active cases rose from 76,856 on Tuesday to 79,963. Twenty-eight deaths were reported from Ludhiana, 20 each from Patiala and Bathinda, 19 from Amritsar and 14 from Sangrur, among fatalities reported in the past 24-hours. Ludhiana registered the maximum number of cases at 1,215 followed by 874 in Bathinda, 821 in Jalandhar, 723 in Fazilka and 713 in Mohali, among daily fresh cases. A total of 4,971 coronavirus patients were discharged after recovering from infection, taking the number of cured persons to 3,76,465, according to the bulletin. There are 342 critical patients who are on ventilator support while 9,736 are on oxygen support, the bulletin said. A total of 79,32,936 samples have been collected for testing so far in the state, it said. Meanwhile, Chandigarh registered 776 fresh cases, taking the count to 52,633, according to a medical bulletin. Fourteen more people succumbed to COVID-19 in the Union territory, taking the toll to 599. The number of active cases was 8,528, as per the bulletin. A total of 859 patients were discharged after they recovered from the infection, taking the number of cured persons to 43,506, as per the bulletin. A total of 4,47,896 samples have been taken for testing so far and of them, 3,94,118 tested negative while reports of 80 samples were awaited, the bulletin stated. Meanwhile, the Chandigarh administration said it has decided to start vaccination for the 18-44 age group from May 14. The beneficiaries will have to book the slots for vaccination, an official release said. The Centre has allotted 33,000 doses of vaccine for the 18-44 age group in Chandigarh. India saw a record rise in COVID-19 deaths with 4,205 fresh fatalities taking the country's death toll to 2,54,197, while 3,48,421 new coronavirus infections were reported, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Wednesday. The total tally of COVID-19 cases in country now stands at 2,33,40,938. The active cases have reduced to 37,04,099 comprising 15.87 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 83.04 per cent, the data updated at 8 am showed. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 1,93,82,642 while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.09 per cent, the data stated. India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16.It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.India crossed the grim milestone of 2 crore on May 4. (editor@dailyworld.in)