2L daily jabs to arrest fatality surge in Punjab

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 9

In a bid to arrest the Covid fatality rate, Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan today directed the Health Department to ramp up the ongoing vaccination drive so as to achieve the target of vaccinating 2 lakh persons a day.

She announced a special fund of Rs 2 crore to every district for effective Covid management. “There is no constraint of funds to fight the pandemic,” she asserted, while chairing a meeting to review the current Covid situation in the state.

She directed the Health Department to observe two days (Tuesday and Friday) every week as mega vaccination days to cover maximum people to defeat the virus. She also set the state’s weekly inoculation target at more than 16 lakh beneficiaries for April.

Record 3,459 cases in a day

• Punjab recorded the highest-ever single-day spike in cases, with 3,459 fresh infections being reported on Friday
• Mohali reported the highest number of cases at 629. As many as 56 persons also succumbed to the infection
• Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Amritsar continued to take the tally skywards reporting 502, 438 and 329 new cases, respectively

Urging eligible persons to get vaccinated at the earliest, she said the higher authorities could authorise vulnerable employees from essential workers’ list for vaccination registration. The Chief Secretary directed the officials to increase the sampling to 50,000 per day, besides actively pursuing contact tracing.

The meeting was informed that 16 lakh persons had been vaccinated in the state so far and vaccination and adherence to Covid norms was the only way to prevent the further spread of the virus.

She directed the departments concerned to address the issue of vaccination hesitancy by undertaking well-planned media campaigns.