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Amid the increasing number of COVID-19 cases, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Wednesday directed the state health department to ramp up the vaccination drive to meet the target of two lakh doses per day.
As per a statement, the COVID-19 positivity rate and Case Fatality Rate (CFR) currently stands at 7.7 per cent and 2 per cent respectively in the state. About 90,000 people are being vaccinated per day in the state. The chief minister also directed officials to increase sampling to 50,000 per day, besides vigorously pursuing contact tracing to 30 people per positive patient. The state health department assured that daily sampling target would be met - 35,000 RTPCR and 15,000 Rapid Antigen Tests. "Many of the reported COVID-19 deaths are avoidable with timely treatment," Singh said. He has also directed Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan to undertake a massive public awareness campaign to motivate people to approach hospitals at early stages and to address the issue of vaccine hesitancy through media campaigns. Mahajan also informed the chief minister that the union government had assured that the state would not face any shortage of vaccines. "The quality of health care in hospitals needs to be improved and the list of approved hospitals with required facilities should be put out in the public domain. Death audit should be done by all districts and private facilities which are not participating in the expert group discussions should be encouraged to do so," the statement further quoted the Chief Minister as saying. The Director-General of Police Dinkar Gupta informed that so far, 2.03 lakhs people had been taken for RT-PCR tests after they were found not wearing masks in public. A total of 43,000 challans have been issued and a fine of Rs 3.60 crores has been collected, besides registration of 206 FIRs and arrest of 246 people. On the vaccination front, Gupta said 77 per cent of the police personnel have been given the first dose while 26 per cent had taken the second shot. There are currently 25,913 active coronavirus cases in Punjab, including 2,924 on Tuesday, the health department informed. The death toll in the state currently stands at 7,216. The Punjab government has already announced a night curfew from 9 pm to 5 am across the state till April 30, and also banned political gatherings in the state. (ANI)
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