With the covid-19 cases booming the state, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to permit inoculation of the youth on an urgent basis. The request was made in view of the increasing infections of the UK strain of coronavirus that accounts for 81% of the total new cases in the state.
The Chief Minister said the B117, which is an extremely contagious and virulent form of its predecessor, is spreading rapidly, affecting the younger group the most. He added that the covishield be available to vaccinate these people as the UK officials have found the AstraZeneca vaccine to be efficient in battling the virus.
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According to the results of the genome sequencing done in Punjab recently, out of the 401 samples sent, 81% of them were infected with the B117 strain, raising alarms.
The mutant form that appeared first in the United Kingdom in November last year is responsible for 90% of the new cases in the UK and 90% of them in Spain. The Britain authorities said this strain is up to 70% more transmissible than the one that arrived from Wuhan of China.
The last few weeks have been dreadful for the state of Punjab after it started recording a sudden rise in the cases along with at least 7 other states of the country. This unforeseen surge in infections has been found as the second wave of coronavirus in the country and started with the emergence of the mutant forms of coronavirus.
According to the data obtained from the Union Health Ministry, India contains a total of 795 cases of coronavirus that are either the strains of UK, Brazil or South Africa.
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An official statement released from the CM’s office today read, “Expressing concern over the emerging situation, the Chief Minister stressed the need for the central government to urgently open up the vaccination for a bigger section of the populace… It was essential to vaccinate more and more people to break the chain of transmission.”
The Punjab government is struggling with the new cases as a large number of people returned to the state from other countries in the recent past following the emergence of the pandemic and more so the emergence of other strains in these foreign countries. Hence, the government is making all efforts to track the virus and keep it at bay.
In the last 24 hours, Punjab has witnessed 2,299 new cases and 58 fatalities.
