As Punjab reports UK Covid variant, CM urges PM to widen vaccination ambit
Coronavirus Punjab: With 81 percent of the latest 401 samples sent by Punjab turned up positive for the new UK Covid variant, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Tuesday appealed to the people to get themselves vaccinated.
Even as he urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to widen the vaccination ambit to cover those younger than 60 since this UK Covid variant has been found to be infecting young people more.
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Expressing concern over the emerging situation, Captain Amarinder Singh stressed the need for the central government to urgently open up the vaccination for a bigger section of the populace.
He pointed out the fact that experts had found the existing Covishield vaccine to be equally effective against the UK variant - B.1.1.7. It was essential to vaccinate more and more people to break the chain of transmission, he added.
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Captain Amarinder also urged the people to strictly adhere to all Covid safety protocols, including wearing masks and maintaining social distancing. The state government, which has already announced fresh restrictions, would be forced to impose more curbs if the people do not follow the Covid appropriate behaviour, he warned.
The appeal from the Chief Minister came after the state’s Covid expert committee head, Dr K.K. Talwar, apprised him of the developments on the new UK Covid variant in Punjab, which has been witnessing a surge in the number of coronavirus positive cases during the last few weeks.
The state health department had sent 478 COVID positive samples to NIB, IGIB, and NCDC for genome sequencing, of which results of 90 samples were received and those showed only two samples for the N440K variant.
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