Chandigarh, July 25: The Punjab government on Saturday warned people of the state not to fall a prey to the fake message which is being widely circulated under the pretext of 'COVID-19 relief package'. The Digital Investigation Training and Analysis Centre of Cyber Crime Cell, Punjab Police alerted the citizens not to click on URL message which is being circulated via instant messaging services like SMS/WhatsApp. The state government said the fraud link depicts that 'free COVID relief package' of Rs 2000 will be given to each citizen by the government.

Ever since the outbreak of COVID-19 in the country, fake messages and misinformation are being widely spread on social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp among others. COVID-19 cases in Punjab continued to soar with the state adding 300 to 400 fresh cases daily in the past several days. Ludhiana continued to top the COVID-19 tally with 2,182 cases, followed by 1,908 in Jalandhar, 1,436 in Amritsar, 1,254 in Patiala as per the bulletin. India Reports 48,916 New COVID-19 Cases, 757 Deaths in Past 24 Hours, Tally Mounts to 13,36,861, Death Toll at 31,358.

Here's the tweet:

On Thursday, the state government increased the fine for coronavirus patients violating home isolation rules from Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000. The total number of coronavirus cases in the state mounted to 12,216, with the state recording its highest single-day spike of 482 COVID-19 cases, including that of 46 BSF personnel. The death toll in the state rose to 282 after five people died due to COVID-19 in Pathankot, Patiala, Hoshiarpur, Sangrur and Ludhiana on Friday night.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 25, 2020 05:46 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).