Chandigarh, Apr 15 (UNI) Even as he noted with satisfaction that the Covid numbers in the state appeared to have plateaued, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Thursday ordered strict enforcement of Covid appropriate protocols to prevent any super spread events, along with increase in daily vaccination doses to two lakh, and a special control room to be set up for effective in-person monitoring of home isolation cases.
Citing figures on mortality and positivity, the Chief Minister said the restrictions currently in place are showing results, and the same needed to be implemented strictly, particularly in Mohali and other big cities showing high rates of transmission and positivity.
He pointed out that the state’s positivity rate stands at 8.1 per cent, even though positivity in the age group of less than 40 years had come down from 54 per cent (September 2020) to 50 per cent (March 2021). The curbs, coupled with strong efforts by all concerned, had helped reduce the percentage of mortality in the age group below 60 years from 50 per cent (September 2020) to 40 per cent (in March 2021), and should be strictly adhered to, he added.
However, he reiterated his demand that the Centre should allow vaccination for under 45 in areas with more cases, since the UK variant was infecting younger people more. He directed Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan to pursue the matter with the central government, while Dr K K Talwar stressed that patients of kidney and liver disease who are under 45 years should at least be allowed to be vaccinated.
The Chief Minister was chairing a virtual meeting with several ministers, including Health Minister Balbir Sidhu, Education Minister Vijay Inder Singla and Medical Education Minister O P Soni, along with senior administrative and police officials as well as medical/health experts to review the Covid and vaccine situation in the state.
Making it clear that there was no scope for complacency, Capt Amarinder said the special control room with dedicated team could utilise ANMs, ASHA workers, interns from medical colleges, to move beyond just telephonic to more in-person monitoring. GMCHs should provide students to RRTs at district level immediately, he directed the Health Department.
On the vaccination front, he directed the Health Department to further scale up vaccination efforts to vaccinate the entire eligible population within this month, along with auditing of any deaths taking place after vaccination. While vaccination has increased to 90,000/day we need to further take it up to 2,00,000/day, he said, with Punjab currently has three lakh Covishield and one lakh Covaxin in stock.
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