Prime Minister Narendra Modi will review the COVID-19 response in Punjab, which is witnessing ‘higher than national average’ deaths and infection rate. In Punjab, the case fatality rate due to COVID-19 and the COVID-19 positivity rate is higher than the national average. Punjab, which has reported an increase in the number of cases being reported recently coupled with
escalating deaths, has CFR of 2.89 percent (as on Tuesday), while the state’s positivity rate on Tuesday was recorded at 5.22 percent.
In all, the Prime Minister will hold a virtual meet with the Chief Ministers of seven states, including Punjab, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Delhi where 65.5 percent of the country’s total confirmed cases, 77 percent of total deaths, and more than 63 percent of the active cases are concentrated.
During the Wednesday’s virtual meeting, the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh would raise the issue of augmentation of Oxygen supplies from other states.
“I will urge the Prime Minister to issue the necessary directions to the states of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, which are currently Punjab’s main source of medical oxygen,” said the Chief Minister. We need to ensure that there are enough supplies in Punjab to save lives, the Chief Minister said amid reports of 14 percent death rate in the three Government Medical Colleges and Hospitals (GMCs) at Patiala, Amritsar and Faridkot, which are engaged in providing tertiary care of COVID-19 patients.
The Chief Minister asked the Departments to work towards bringing the death rate in these GMCs to below 10 percent at the earliest. The state Medical Education Secretary DK Tiwari, during the virtual COVID review meeting chaired by the Chief Minister, asserted that while there was no shortage of Oxygen in Punjab at present, “but, if occupancy goes up to 100 percent, more supplies would be needed”.
“Nodal officers deputed to monitor the supplies from the three units in Himachal, Haryana and Uttarakhand are keeping the supplies streamlined,” he said.
The state Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu and Medical Education and Research Minister OP Soni stressed that oxygen should be diverted from industry if required.
The state Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan informed the meeting that so far, 10 medical oxygen generation licenses have been issued to industrial oxygen units in Punjab, in addition to 14 medical oxygen repackaging licenses. She disclosed that efforts were on to also procure oxygen from Rourkela.