State seeks 40 lakh more vaccine doses

Punjab has run out of Covishield vaccine and is left with a mere 3,500 Covaxin doses, says the CM

CHANDIGARH : Citing the current demand of more than 2 lakh Covid vaccine doses for the second jab alone, Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Tuesday asked the Centre to provide 40 lakh more doses to inoculate the state’s eligible population.

Amarinder said the state was expecting 2.46 lakh doses to arrive on Tuesday but noted that vaccines remain in short supply as it has run out of Covishield and was left with a mere 3,500 Covaxin doses as of Monday. Punjab has already vaccinated more than 90 lakh people (nearly 37% of eligible population) and has been utilising the stock without any wastage, said the CM. While the first dose has been administered to 75 lakh people, 15 lakh had got the second dose too.

The Centre needs to arrange for delivery to the state to meet the shortfall and enable inoculation of the second dose, while continuing with the vaccination, said the CM.

Disability schemes’ benefit to mucormycosis patients

Reviewing the state’s Covid situation through a virtual conference, the CM announced extension of benefits of existing schemes for persons with disability to those suffering from disability caused by mucormycosis.

The benefits will be extended as per the nature and degree of the disability, he said.

The CM directed the medical education department to establish post-covid care centres in government medical colleges and hospitals for free follow-up of the cured cases of mucormycosis.

State reports 4 deaths, 68 fresh cases

Punjab on Tuesday reported four more Covid fatalities, taking the death toll to 16,244, while 68 fresh cases pushed the infection tally to 5,98,455, according to a media bulletin of the health department.

Two deaths were reported from Ferozepur and one each from Fatehgarh Sahib and Muktsar, the bulletin said.

The state registered a positivity rate of 0.20%, which slightly higher than 0.18% recorded on Monday.

Among fresh cases, maximum 10 were reported in Ludhiana followed by 8 each in Hoshiarpur and Jalandhar.