Faced with shortage of Covid vaccines, Punjab chief minister (CM) Captain Amarinder Singh on Friday deferred Phase III of vaccination of the 18-45 age group.
The Punjab CM made it clear that due to non-availability of vaccine, Phase III of vaccination, which was slated to begin on May 1, cannot be started as scheduled.
He said as the balance of unutilised vaccines had to be returned to the Government of India by all private health facilities by Friday evening, these facilities would have no vaccines to administer from tomorrow for 45+ population, while they could not vaccinate 18-45 age group as they had no supplies for the same.
The Punjab CM said that his government was pursuing the matter of vaccine shortage with the Centre, as the situation is critical. The state had received 2 lakh doses but that was not sufficient even to meet the two days requirement of the 45+ age group, he said.
The meeting was informed that an order for procurement of 30 lakh doses of Covishield for the age group of 18-45 years was placed with Serum Institute of India on April 26, but the response received was that availability of vaccine will be known only in 4 weeks’ time.
Ruling out a complete lockdown for now, Punjab CM also directed the DCs of the six worst-affected districts to further tighten the micro-containment strategy and ensure 100% testing.
“Lockdown is not a solution, as it will lead to exodus of the labourers and force them to go to states with even lesser medical facilities,” he said. Urging the industry to set up their own Covid treatment centres and makeshift hospitals to treat their own labourers suffering from mild/moderate infection, he stressed on teamwork to fight the Covid battle. He also directed the Chief Secretary to look into encouraging retired doctors and nurses, along with final year MBBS students, to rejoin for handling L2/L3 facilities, and suggested setting up of temporary healthcare facilities in halls/gymnasiums etc.
A prefab 100-bedded hospital will come up at Mohali and a 250-bedded temporary hospital is being set up near the Bathinda refinery, with Oxygen supply from the refinery, he said, urging all departments to be prepared for the peak and identify areas in the various districts for establishment of temporary hospitals. An additional 2000 beds are being added in Punjab with 600 beds being added at the GMCH Patiala, and Amritsar, he noted.
The worst-affected Mohali district was currently showing 90% bed occupancy, the meeting was informed, with DC Girish Dayalan disclosing that a large number of patients had come from Delhi-NCR. With other regions in the tri-city not agreeing to a weekend lockdown, the situation was grim, he said.
