With cases of Delta Plus variant coming to light, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Tuesday ordered extension of the Covid restrictions till July 10, with certain relaxations, including opening of bars, pubs and ahatas at 50% capacity, beginning July 1.
Skill Development Centres and universities have also been allowed to open conditional to the staff and students having taken at least one dose of vaccine. IELTS coaching institutes were already allowed to be opened, subject to students and staff having taken at least one dose of vaccine.
Announcing the relaxations at a high-level Covid review meeting, the CM made it clear that the bars, pubs and ahatas would have to strictly maintain social distancing protocols, and waiters/ servers/other employees should have taken at least one dose of the Covid vaccine. He made it clear that it would be the responsibility of the owners to ensure that the conditions are met.
Expressing satisfaction over the decline in positivity to less than 1% in Punjab, with overall fall in active cases, the Chief Minister noted that the positivity rate in some districts still remained over 1%. Further, the finding of Delta plus variant was a matter of concern, making it essential to continue with the curbs, he stressed.
Captain Amarinder ordered fast tracking of the establishment of a Whole Genome Sequencing Lab at GMCH Patiala, in association with the international non-profit organisation PATH, to make it operational by July. He also ordered intensification of genome sequences of cases reported from clusters in limited geographical, institutional or superspreader event area to check the spread of the potential third wave.
Health Minister Balbir Sidhu suggested a close watch on visitors from countries reporting Delta Plus variant cases.
Reviewing the preparations for what experts have predicted as an imminent third way, the CM directed the Health and Medical Education departments to scale up testing.
The Chief Minister noted that 77 PSA plants are in the process of being set up to meet requirement of oxygen in case of a sudden surge. The state also has over 6,700 Oxygen concentrators, he added.
Medical Education & Research Minister OP Soni said 80% of the preparations needed to tackle the third wave were already completed in the Government Medical Colleges of Punjab.
Dr Talwar told the meeting that it was very difficult to predict the third wave due to mutation, with the Delta Plus variant already reported from 12 countries and 52 cases in Maharashtra. Urging extreme caution, he said it was necessary to see how the mutant behaves. As of now, the existing vaccines were showing effectiveness against the present variants, he said.
On the Black Fungus (Mucormycosis), the Chief Minister noted that Punjab has had much fewer cases than most other states, including Haryana, and Delhi, which not only saw more cases but more than three times the deaths in Punjab. The Chief Minister, however, said it was unfortunate that 51 people had died due to black fungus in the state.
