As Covid cases and deaths continue to escalate, with the UK strain emerging the most prevalent in the state, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Tuesday ordered extension of curbs till 10 April, while directing the Health Department to increase the number of vaccination sites to target the priority categories on urgent basis.
Reviewing the Covid situation with the Chief Secretary and other top officials, the Chief Minister said all restrictions that were in place till 31 March will now remain in force till 10 April, after which they would be again reviewed.
The Chief Minister also ordered the launch of a vaccination drive in the prisons, in the wake of 40 women in Patiala’s Nabha Open Jail testing positive for Coronavirus.
Expressing grave concern over the situation, Captain Amarinder asked Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan to issue the necessary directions for carrying out testing and vaccination in busy market areas along with other crowded places. He asked all DCs and Civil Surgeons to identify places where mobile Covid Vaccination Centres can be created, such as Police Lines, Colleges & Universities, bigger Industrial Units, Bus Stands, and Railway Stations, PRTC/ Punjab Roadways bus depots, market places, etc. to ramp up vaccination.
All eligible govt employees, and other categories which he had requested for inclusion in vaccine coverage (such as judges, teachers etc), should be facilitated in getting vaccination to the extent of being eligible on account of being over 45 years of age, said the Chief Minister. He directed pooling of resources available in districts with high number of cases for effective management of the pandemic and uptake of the vaccination.
Notably, the latest data shows the UK strain of the virus to be the most prevalent in the state. While 326 of the 401 Covid positive samples sent initially to NCDC for genome sequencing were found positive for the UK variant, subsequently of the 95 samples sent to IGIB for genome sequencing, 85 samples were found to be positive for the same
DGP Dinkar Gupta apprised that since the last meeting when the decision to challan the Covid protocol offenders along with RT-PCR testing was taken, 90,360 persons had been challaned and tested for Covid. He requested for a special vaccination drive in the police lines.
While the availability of L2 and L3 beds in Government as well as in private sectors seemed to be comfortable for now, there was need to increase the bed availability in some of the private hospitals which are treating critically-ill patients, the Chief Minister stressed. He also directed all districts to ramp up sampling in general and sampling of contacts of Covid positive patients in particular, increasing RAT to 30%.
Strict monitoring of home isolation patients should be done, they should be transferred to the appropriate level of healthcare facilities if need be, directed the Chief Minister, asking all DCs and Civil Surgeons to ensure that no deaths occur in L2 facility as a rule, and there is early shifting of the patient to L3 facility once it is established that the patient needs critical care.