On Friday evening, Punjab CM went live (video embedded below)in a public address to Punjabis all over the world in which he highlighted theworsening situation in Punjab.
Punjab is suffering from higher and higher cases of COVIDalong with deaths due to the same. He claims that UK-based strain is wreakinghavoc which was not seen in the first wave of COVID.
He claimed that the objective now is to contain the spreadof the virus and the way to achieve that is to reduce gatherings.
To this end, many measures like timings of shops have beenset. He explains that in the normal timings people would gather and this is howthe virus keeps on claiming more and more people.
He pointed interesting deviations from the first wave thatin this wave villages are more affected than cities and younger people are contractingthe disease more.
Then, he exhorts Punjabis to not ignore any symptoms citingthe nature of a Punjabi to put caution to the wind and believe that thesymptoms are nothing.
He asks if a common woman and man of Punjab is a doctor,then how can we judge for ourselves whether we have common cold, malaria, or typhoid.
He requests any person who suspects he may be infected withCOVID to get checked at a doctor, and then the latter will decide what thedisease is and what to do.
If tested positive for COVID, then the person will have toget the treatment so that the chain of virus spread gets broken, claims the CM.
He then explains the three levels of disease and how theyare to be treated – Level I, II, III.
Level I are those people who get themselves diagnosed earlyand are then treated at home. In Level II are those are late and in this case oxygenvia medical equipment is required. Then there are those who delay the most, andthen get assigned in Level III. The CM rues this tendency of Punjabis to delaywhen he claims that we lose many people in Level III.
He claims with sadness in his voice that we all have lost9980 fellow Punjabis in Punjab.
Why? He claims because we ignore, we think this will happento someone else.
Then, he mentions religious and spiritual leaders in Punjaband thanks them for their support in handling COVID. Likewise, he mentions acouple of businessmen who are living abroad for their support.
He requests Punjabis in all parts of the world to comeforward and help their mother state in any and every way they can.
He again requests his brethren to take a serious approachtowards COVID.
And then comes the scary part. He informs peak is not yet insight, and government experts claims around May 15 we should see a peak andthen the number of daily COVID infections should reduce.
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However, the third wave will begin in September.
He then elaborates Spanish Flu of 1918 and that it too camein spikes and in India stayed for four years. He claims and this writer agreesthat we do not know the number of waves COVID will have in India and the world.
Finally, the CM empathises will all people in Punjab who mayhave to suffer because of the rules the government has to enact to contain thepandemic.
He claims all this is for you, your family, and your Punjab.
In closing, the CM thanks God and prays for better situationfor every Punjabi.