Stricter curbs in Punjab if Covid situation does not improve
Punjab’s Chief Minister Amarinder Singh warned on Wednesday of stricter restrictions if the Covid-19 situation in the state does not improve over the next week. The state is reeling from a massive wave of cases and deaths despite the administration imposing a nightly curfew.
Amarinder, who was reviewing the Covid situation with top health, administrative, and law enforcement officials, said it would review the situation on April 8 and make a decision on further restrictions if the spread of Covid continues unchecked. “I’ll watch things for a week, and then if there’s no improvement, we may have to go for tighter curbs,” he said.
It was learned that at the meeting it was discussed that while confinement would be a bad idea, the government should guarantee the strict application of the rules of masking and social distancing. There was also talk about improving police presence in different parts of the state to create the feeling that the dangers of Covid were real.
Underlining the need for aggressive vaccination, particularly in areas with high cases and cities with more than 300 cases, Amarinder directed officials to contact eligible individuals at the mohalla level in the worst affected districts to motivate people to get vaccinated. He also led stricter enforcement of Covid restrictions and protocols in the hardest-hit cities of Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Mohali, and Amritsar.
Dr. KK Talwar, head of the state Covid expert committee, said more restrictions were needed in urban areas, which were reporting higher cases. DGP Dinkar Gupta said that since March 19, 1.30 lakhs of people had been taken for RT-PCR tests after being found moving without masks. Of these, 391 were positive, he revealed.
Police officers obtain COVID-19 control of mask rapist at Clock Tower Chowk in Ludhiana Photo by Gurmeet Singh
SAS Nagar, Kapurthala, Patiala, SBS Nagar, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Hoshiarpur, Ludhiana districts are reporting maximum positivity, while overall positivity in the state is 7.6% as of March 24, 2021.
Taking note of the inconvenience caused to travelers, the Chief Minister also ordered to remove the hour-long silence on Saturdays to commemorate the Covid warriors.
The CM expressed concern about the high mortality rate, which according to Dr. Talwar is due to patients not reaching hospitals on time and the rate of comorbidities is also high in the state. Dr. Talwar informed the meeting that between 80% and 85% of patients who die are chronically ill. The CM directed the administration to develop a robust mechanism to bring people with comorbidities to hospital as soon as possible, in addition to tighter monitoring of people isolated at home. He called on religious and political leaders to promote appropriate Covid behavior.
Responds to the Center, says it delayed the extension of vaccination to the group over 45 years
A day after the Center took on the Punjab government for failing to manage the Covid surge, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said on Wednesday that the state was not only consistently doing more tests per million than the national average, but that also the situation would have been better. if the Government of India had not delayed the opening of vaccination for the age group 45 years and over.
If the central government had acceded to the state’s request to allow the vaccination of the entire population of the 50+ category earlier, instead of delaying the decision to include the population aged 45 and over by almost two months, the situation would been better, it said in a statement.
He was reacting to the Center’s allegation that the state government was not doing enough CoViD testing or isolating affected people.
The CM said its government had imposed severe restrictions on social gatherings and closed all educational institutions, with night curfews imposed from 9 pm to 5 am in 11 severely affected districts.
It noted that the state government had been repeatedly requesting the Center in writing, as well as in meetings attended by the Chief Secretary, that the current immunization strategy needs a review. Vaccination in a campaign that covers all age groups in selected areas will lead to better results than periodic vaccination cycles targeting a small section of the population in each cycle, he emphasized, underscoring the need for such an approach in any area where Weekly testing shows a doubling of the positivity rate.
He reiterated his demand for permission for occupation-based immunization for school and university students and teachers, judges, bus drivers and drivers, panches / sarpanches, mayors / municipal committee, presidents/councilors, MLA and parliamentarians everywhere.
Amarinder also noted the delay in receiving genome sequencing reports. Of the 874 samples submitted, only 588 reports had been received so far, of which 411 samples were positive for B.1.1.7 (UK variant) and two samples positive for N440K. The implication of the presence of the UK mutant variant should be investigated and appropriate advice is required to be shared with the state, the CM urged the Center.
Citing the factual position on the testing front, Capt noted that during the first spike, which occurred in September 2020, the positivity rate was around 10 and the state was testing 30,000 CoViD samples per day. Now, when positivity exceeds 7%, the state is testing about 40,000 CoViD samples per day. The state is constantly testing around 90% RT-PCR and roughly 10% RAT, and its test per million is 1.96,667 while the national average is 1.82,296, he noted.
The state had a very limited capacity to test RT-PCR when this pandemic began. It was about 40 samples per day and in a very short amount of time, the state increased its own RT-PCR testing capacity to more than 25,000 tests per day. The state is constantly using its optimal RT-PCR capacity. Indian Government institutions like IISER, IMTech, PGIMER are supporting the state to the extent of only about 100 samples per day, CM said, adding that the state can increase RAT testing to any level if necessary.
Furthermore, he noted that during the first peak in September 2020, Punjab had increased contact tracing to 10 contacts per positive case. Now, during the second peak, “we are tracking more than 15 contacts per positive case,” he added.
She is a freelance blogger, writer, and speaker, and writes for various entertainment magazines.