No Covishield, only one-day Covaxin stock left, Punjab CM calls for more supplies from Centre
With the state running out of Covishield and left with only one day’s stock of Covaxin, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Friday again stressed the need for an increase in vaccine supplies from the Centre.
An increase in supplies was critical given the gradual opening of sectors conditional to stakeholders having taken at least one dose, said Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh.
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He also directed the officials to continue pursuing aggressively the Centre for enhancement of the state’s quota for vaccines — Covishield and Covaxin.
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Pointing out that Punjab had already vaccinated nearly 83 lakh eligible persons (approximately 27 percent of the population), the Chief Minister said that the stock was being utilized in the state without any wastage.
Punjab was able to utilise more than 6 lakh doses in a single day when adequate supply was received, he noted, during the Covid review meeting.
While the 1st dose has been administered to 70 lakh people, 13 lakh people had received the second dose, he added.
Punjab Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan told the meeting that the administration was following up with the Government of India for more doses.
Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Minister on Friday asked the concerned departments to step up Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) to expeditiously identify cases of the new Covid-19 variant and to fast track the project for execution of the MoU with ICMR for Regional Institute of Virology, Mohali.
Though no fresh cases of Delta Plus variant had been identified in the state, the Chief Minister directed that the Whole Genome Sequencing Lab at GMCH Patiala, coming up with the support of PATH, must become functional this month.
-PTC News
