Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Thursday urged the Centre to give flexibility to states to devise their local strategies for Covid vaccination, within the broad parameters of the Centre’s approach. At the same time, the Chief Minister sought a review of the strategy to allow all adults in high-risk areas to be immunized, along with patients with liver and kidney disease below the age of 45.
Capt Amarinder made these suggestions in a letter written to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi immediately after the latter’s videoconferencing meeting with the Chief Ministers of all states to review the COVID and vaccination situation.
During the meeting, the Chief Minister apprised the Prime Minister of the situation in the State, and also the steps taken by the Government to control and manage the disease.
The Chief Minister assured the Centre of all-out efforts by the Government to contain and manage COVID.
In his subsequent letter, the Chief Minister said that his suggestions, some of which had been earlier submitted on March 17 to the PM, the Union Minister and the Union Health Minister, were based on the State Government’s interaction with independent experts.
Amid reports of some states facing vaccine shortages, Capt Amarinder also requested the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to share the schedule for supply of vaccines with the States over the next quarter, based on their confirmed supply orders.
Given that over 80 percent positive cases found in Punjab are of the UK variant, as per early reports from central laboratories, the Chief Minister also sought strengthening of viral sequencing in the State, which has been reporting around 3,000 cases per day since the last 15 days, with around eight percent positivity.
The state currently has around 26,000 active cases with a recovery rate of 87.3 percent, with death a matter of concern at 50-60 deaths a day and around two percent Case Fatality Rate (CFR) in the second surge, which struck the state in the latter half of February this year.
The Chief Minister reiterated his earlier request for covering all teachers and staff in all educational institutions for vaccination to enable resumption of physical classes once the surge abates. Also, occupation-based immunization for judges and judicial officers, bus drivers and conductors, elected representatives at all levels, etc should be allowed to take the vaccination, he stressed.
Capt Amarinder also urged the Prime Minister to direct central institutions like IISER, IMTech, AIIMS Bathinda, and PGIMER-Chandigarh to increase the RT-PCR testing from Punjab. Further, PGIMER, Chandigarh should be asked to earmark at least 50 COVID ICU beds for patients being referred by the State, he added.
Currently, 55 percent of healthcare workers and around 90 percent frontline workers have got the first dose of vaccine, the Chief Minister told the Prime Minister during the virtual meeting.
While disclosing that more than 8.9 lakh persons aged 45-plus have taken the first dose of vaccination.
Daily vaccinations have increased from 20,000 per day in mid-March to around 85-90,000 per day, with a maximum of 1.32 lakh vaccinations on April 3. “We are targeting around two lakh per day by the end of this month,” he said.
Pointing that Punjab’s testing per million is higher than the national average, Capt Amarinder said that 40,000 COVID tests per day are being conducted, of which more than 90 percent are RT-PCR and less than 10 percent Rapid Antigen Test (RAT), with the State now planning to increase to 50,000 per day.