With Punjab left with only 5 days of supply (5.7 lakh Covid vaccine doses) at the current levels of vaccinating 85000-90000 persons a day, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Saturday urged the Centre to share the schedule for supply of vaccines with the States over the next quarter based on their confirmed supply orders.

Hoping that the Centre would send fresh batches of vaccine supply soon, the Chief Minister said if the state is able to meet its target of 2 lakh vaccines a day, then its current supplies will last only 3 days. He said he had written to the Prime Minister & the Union Health Minister to give confirmed supply schedules.

Despite being a slow-starter in vaccination, Punjab has vaccinated more than 16 lakh persons, at an average of around 85000-90000 per day, he said during a video conference convened by Congress president Sonia Gandhi to discuss the Covid situation. The meeting was attended by chief ministers of the Congress-ruled states, as well as senior party leaders, including Rahul Gandhi.

Capt Amarinder said people in Punjab were still not coming out in large numbers for the vaccination due to the massive anger prevailing against the Government of India on the issue of Farm Laws. Since Punjab has a majority population among the agriculture community, even the common man is affected by the farmers’ agitation, he said, adding “this anger is impacting the vaccination drive.” He said his government is undertaking an extensive media campaign to address the mis-information

regarding Covid and vaccination hesitancy.

Ranking 18th in the country at present in terms of cases reported, Punjab is showing around 8% positivity, with an average of around 3000 cases per day for the past 15 days, the Chief Minister apprised Sonia. The number of cases is slightly stable, he pointed out, adding that “this shows that the steps taken in the last 3 weeks are in the right direction.” Even in the graphs put up by Health Ministry in Prime Minister’s review meeting yesterday, the “curve appears to be flattened over the past fortnight,” he said, disclosing that the state currently has around 27,200 active cases with recovery rate of 87.1%.

Noting that high positivity is being seen in the younger population and as per reports received from NCDC and IGIB, more than 80% samples have been found to be positive for the more contagious and virulent UK variant, the Chief Minister shared with the Congress president the various measures taken by his government to combat the spread. These, he said, included complete ban on political gatherings till 30th April, imposition of night curfew across all districts from 9 pm to 5 am, restrictions on numbers in outdoor and indoor social gatherings and in cinema halls and malls, and closure of all educational institutions and Anganwadi Centres, with school exams being postponed. He said his government had to impose a ban on political gatherings as opposition leaders like Arvind Kejriwal and Sukhbir Badal were holding rallies in the state in violation of Covid norms.

The Chief Minister assured the meeting that the state has all arrangements in place to ensure proper and timely treatment of Covid patients, with sufficient availability of beds, drugs, Remdesivir injection etc. Punjab will do its best to contain and manage Covid as we did last year, he said.

Capt Amarinder also apprised Sonia of his communication with the central government on Covid and vaccine management, including the two letters he has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, seeking flexibility for states to devise their local vaccination strategies. He added that he had requested the Centre for inclusion of patients with liver & kidney disease below age of 45 and to focus on immunizing all adults in high-risk areas, besides covering all teachers & staff in all educational institutions, besides occupation-based immunization for judges & judicial officers, bus drivers & conductors, elected representatives at all levels, etc.

PRIVATE HOSPITALS IN PUNJAB TO POSTPONE ELECTIVE SURGERIES TILL APRIL 30

Principal Secretary Health and Family Welfare, Punjab Hussan Lal on Saturday chaired a virtual meeting with private hospitals of the state for COVID-19 management, urging them to defer the elective surgeries at least till April 30 to meet the rising number of demand for Covid beds.

He directed all the private hospitals to charge at government fixed rates for the treatment and avoid overcharging. There are 213 private hospitals on board for the COVID-19 treatment in the state at present and the Government has provided 230 ventilators to private hospitals which should be used optimally.

The Principal Secretary Health stated that more than 20,000 doses of Remdisivir have been provided to Government and Private hospitals and these were available free of cost.

He reiterated that Oxygen demand and supply must be communicated to the Civil Surgeon of the district so that in case of any additional requirement, the same could be made available from the appropriate source well in time.

He  also expressed his concern about the Critical Care Specialists of Private hospitals not attending sessions being organised by Dr KK Talwar and advised the hospitals to ensure that their Critical Care Specialists must attend these webinars being coordinated by Dr Talwar.

PUNJAB HEALTH MINISTER CONDUCTS SURPRISE CHECKING OF COVID-19 VACCINATION CENTRES

To ensure hassle-free COVID-19 vaccination drive and treatment services at COVID Care hospitals, Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu on Saturday conducted the surprise checking of 4 Government Hospitals at Kharar, Morinda, Chamkaur Sahib and Ropar.  He said the Health Department is conducting vaccination drive at more than 2500 centres in Punjab where adequate arrangements have been made for the facility of beneficiaries, adding that to provide standardized facilities, the surprise checking was conducted.

Interacting with the beneficiaries at all vaccination centres, the Health Minister appealed to the beneficiaries to motivate others and come together with the state government to remove the hesitancy regarding the COVID-19 Vaccine. He also instructed the staff to properly sensitize all the beneficiaries who are coming to get the vaccination.