As active Covid cases in the state surged to 12,616, with daily positivity rate climbing to over 5%, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Wednesday urged the Centre to review its immunization strategy to vaccinate all age groups in selected areas, while announcing a stricter policy to deal with the problem.
The Chief Minister also called for occupation-based immunization for school and college students and teachers, judges, bus drivers and conductors, Panches/sarpanches, Mayors/Municipal Committee Presidents/Counsellors, MLAS, MPs etc. to pave the way for normalization of crucial activities and check super-spreaders. He advocated early opening of the courts to end the wait for justice for citizens, and also of schools and colleges to bridge the gap between poor and affluent families in terms of education.
The Chief Minister blamed the surge in cases on fatigue/laxity in following Covid appropriate behaviours, large social and religious gatherings, and efforts at normalization such as opening of schools and colleges. Large positivity was seen in the state’s young population, he said. He said the trend was worrying as the state had reported a total of 1475 cases and 38 deaths on Monday, preceded by 1843 cases and 43 deaths the day before. He pointed out that the state finance minister Manpreet Badal and SAD president Sukhbir Badal had also tested positive for coronavirus. “We are making a policy, we will get stricter from tomorrow,” he added.
During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s virtual Covid review meeting with Chief Ministers of all states, Captain Amarinder suggested that any area where weekly testing shows a doubling of positivity rates should immediately be considered for vaccination of all age groups. This, he said, would lead to better outcomes than the periodic cycles of vaccination targeting a small section of the population at each cycle. The daily positivity rate has climbed to more than 5% in March from a low of less than 1% in January. So far, a total of 1.99 lakh positive cases had been reported from 54 lakh tests and 6099 people have died of the infection, he added.