DW BUREAU / Chandigarh Twenty-nine more fatalities due to coronavirus pushed the death toll to 3,741 while the infection count reached 1,21,716 with 930 new cases in Punjab on Thursday. Five deaths were reported from Faridkot, three each from Gurdaspur and Jalandhar, two each from Barnala, Ferozepur, Kapurthala, Ludhiana, Patiala and Rupnagar and one each from Amritsar, Fatehgarh Sahib, Fazilka, Mansa, Pathankot and Tarn Taran, a health department medical bulletin said. Among the places which reported new cases included Mohali (155), Jalandhar (122), Amritsar (100) and Ludhiana (89). There are now 10,775 active COVID-19 cases in the state, according to the bulletin. A total of 1,615 coronavirus patients were discharged on Thursday after recovering from the infection, taking the total number of cured persons to 1,07,200. Forty-two critical patients are on ventilator support while 228 are on oxygen support, the bulletin said. A total of 20,53,875 samples have been collected for testing so far in the state, it said. India saw a single-day rise of 78,524 COVID-19 cases taking the virus caseload to over 68 lakh, while the number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 58,27,704,  according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday. The COVID-19 recovery rate stands at 85.25 per cent. The total coronavirus cases mounted to 68,35,655, while the death toll climbed to 1,05,526 with 971 people succumbing to the disease in a span of 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed. The total recoveries have surged to 58,27,704 while there are 9,02,425 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country which comprises 13.20  per cent of the total caseload, the data stated. The COVID-19 case fatality rate has dropped to 1.54 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 and crossed 60 lakh on September 28. According to the ICMR, a cumulative total of 8,34,65,975 samples have been tested up to October 7 with 11,94,321 samples being tested on Wednesday. The 971 new fatalities include 355 from Maharashtra, 113 from Karnataka, 67 from Tamil Nadu, 58 from West Bengal, 47 from Uttar Pradesh, 35 from Delhi, 34 from Andhra Pradesh, 33 from Punjab and 30 Chhattisgarh. A total of 1,05, 526 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 39,072  from Maharashtra followed by 9,984 from Tamil Nadu, 9,574 from Karnataka. (editor@dailyworld.in)