Citing a current demand of more than 2 lakh COVID vaccine doses for the second dose alone, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Tuesday demanded 40 lakh more doses from the Centre on urgent basis to inoculate the State’s eligible population.
Review meeting
The State was expecting 2.46 lakhs vaccines to arrive on Tuesday but the Chief Minister, during a COVID review virtual meeting, noted that the vaccine remains in short supply. The State has run out of Covishield and is left with only 3,500 Covaxin doses as of on July 19, he said
Punjab has already vaccinated more than 90 lakh persons (nearly 37% of eligible population) and has been utilising the stock without any wastage, said the Chief Minister. While the first dose has been administered to 75 lakh people, 15 lakh had got the second dose too, he added.
The Centre needs to arrange for immediate delivery to the State to meet the shortfall and enable inoculation of all those needing the second dose, while continuing with the vaccination of other eligible persons, he said.
Pointing out that the doses being supplied to private hospitals were getting wasted as people preferred to go to government hospitals for free inoculation, Health Secretary Hussan Lal informed the meeting that the State has sought diversion of the stocks from the private hospitals but had not received any response so far from the Centre.
Sero survey of children
The Punjab government on Tuesday said it will start a sero survey, especially focused on children in the age group of 6 to 17 ahead of a possible third wave. The survey will start this month.
Sero surveys or sero prevalence studies are based on analysis of antibodies collected through blood samples.
Capt. Amarinder said the outcome of the sentinel sero surveillance survey, aimed to assess the prevalence of the infection among those under 18, will be utilised to determine further localised restrictions as the State prepares for the third wave, according to a government statement.
GIS-based surveillance and prevention tools will be used with an auto trigger mechanism for localised restrictions, he said.
Dr K.K. Talwar, head of State’s expert committee on COVID-19, said in the first and second waves, 10% of those infected were under 18 and while there was no concrete data to support such a projection, the State was preparing to handle more cases of children in the third wave.
The CM also ordered establishment of a paediatric unit in each district and one centre of excellence in paediatrics for the State.
(With PTI inputs)