The danger of Covid-19 is back in Punjab and now the threat of the Omicron variant has also emerged. In the last 11 days, 64 corona patients have been found positive in the state and during the same time, 16 people have succumbed to the virus. Despite this, the government is not able to fulfil the target of the daily test. The government had claimed to test 40 thousand patients daily but by Saturday the count was at just 17 thousand.
The Covid situation became worse when three passengers, returned from Italy, were found positive for Covid-19 at Amritsar airport. However, the case of the Omicron variant has not been confirmed yet, but the government has sent their samples to Delhi for genome sequencing test.
Till the evening of 30th November, there were 325 active cases of Covid-19 in the state, which has now increased to 389, till 11th December. And the death toll has increased from 602 to 618.
So far 6,03,697 patients have been found positive in Punjab, out of which 5,86,690 patients have been cured and 16,618 have lost their lives. Even at this time, 30 patients are on oxygen and 10 ICU i.e. total of 40 patients are on ventilator support.
Punjab is lagging in the second dose Covid-19 vaccine. So far, 2.51 crores people have taken Covid jab in Punjab, of these, 1.68 crores have only taken the first dose.
Deputy CM OP Soni and the Ministry of Health said that the state is ready to deal with the third wave. It further said that tests are being done at Amritsar and Mohali airports to deal with the new Covid-19 variant. The samples of the tested people have been sent to Delhi so that the Omicron variant can be confirmed.
Two days ago, Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi held a meeting, in which all the districts have been asked to make arrangements to deal with the possible third wave.