Alarming: 81% of New Corona Samples from Punjab are of UK Variant
Vinayak Barot
Amritsar, Mar 23: Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amrinder Singh on Tuesday appealed to people to get vaccinated after the 81 percent latest sample in Punjab detected the UK variant.
Amid rising coronavirus cases in Punjab – CM Amrinder urged the central government to increase the vaccination program in Punjab. “The process needs to be expedited,” he said.
CM Amrinder further added that “Medical experts have found that the existing Covishield vaccine to be equally effective against the UK variant – B.1.1.7., and it is very important to vaccinate more and more people to break the chain of spread.”
On rising cases in the state, he said, “The state government, which has already announced fresh restrictions, would be forced to impose more curbs if the people do not follow the Covid appropriate behavior.”
The state health department had sent 478 COVID positive samples to NIB, IGIB, and NCDC for genome sequencing, of which results of 90 samples were received and those showed only two samples for N440K variant.
The state’s Covid expert committee head, Dr. KK Talwar said that “Subsequently, a team from the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India, visited the state to review the increase in positivity. The team was informed about the pending results of genome sequencing.
Thereafter, 401 more samples, collected between 1.1.2021 to 10.3.2021, were sent to NCDC for genome sequencing. The result of these samples was worrying as it showed the presence of B.1.1.7 variant in 326 COVID samples,”
It is noteworthy that the B.1.1.7 variant is now spreading rapidly in many parts of the world, representing 98 percent of the new cases in the UK and 90 percent in Spain. UK authorities have suggested it is up to 70 percent more transmissible than the original virus.
Maharashtra, Punjab, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu reported a rise in Daily New Cases and these states account for 81 percent of daily new cases.
