After Odisha, Punjab extends lockdown till April 30

New Delhi, April 10 (PTI): The Punjab government on Friday extended the coronavirus lockdown till April 30, becoming the second state after Odisha to do so.

 

The decision was taken at a meeting of the council of ministers in Chandigarh.

 

“PUNJAB CABINET @capt_amarinder UNANIMOUSLY APPROVES EXTENSION OF PUNJAB CURFEW/ LOCKDOWN till 30 April, 2020/1st May, 2020. Extension by 21 days from today. Strict enforcement (sic),” Special Chief Secretary KBS Sidhu tweeted.

 

Punjab has seen a spike in the number of coronavirus cases in the past few days, pushing the total count to 132 so far with 11 deaths.

 

Earlier in the day, during a video conference with the media, hosted by the All India Congress Committee from New Delhi, chief minister Amarinder Singh had indicated that his government was seriously thinking of extending the lockdown as the time did not appear to be right for lifting the ongoing restrictions.

 

 

He also said the government was looking for ways to extricate the state from the restrictions and enable it to function with the coronavirus around.

 

A high-powered committee with several doctors, medical and other experts, was examining the situation and will soon submit its report on the lockdown exit strategy, the chief minister said.

 

Singh also said that with new cases emerging shows the possibility of community transmission of COVID-19 in the state as the patients have no travel history.

 

"In Punjab, 27 cases are there with no travel history. Yes it can be said that most of them are cases of community transmission," he said.

 

According to the World Health Organisation, community transmission is " evidenced by the inability to relate confirmed cases through chains of transmission for a large number of cases."

 

Addressing a press conference through video conference, Singh said Punjab will allow district-wise relief from lockdown only to farmers to allow them for harvesting of Rabi crop.

 

He said the state was expecting a bumper crop of 185 lakh tonnes of wheat and is making arrangements for harvest of the crop.

 

He said predictions by health experts about the spread of the pandemic are "horrendous and frightening".

 

"Prediction by experts about spread of the virus are horrendous and frightening," he said, adding that the government is preparing itself and gearing up for such a situation.

 

Quoting a PGIMER study, he said the virus is likely to touch its peak by mid-september and may likely to affect 58 per cent of India's population and 87 per cent of Punjab's and other states' population.

 

"....COVID19 epidemic in India is estimated to reach its peak in mid-September 2020 at a point where 58 per cent of population has been infected," he said quoting the projections made by the Department of Community Medicine in PGIMER in Chandigarh.

 

Quoting another figure from the projections by PGI, he said the virus can infect up to 87 per cent of population of Punjab and other states.

 

He said, "The only good thing about coronavirus is that the drugs supply line has been broken".

 

To a question, the Punjab chief minister admitted that there has been some community transmission of the virus in Punjab as there are 27 positive cases from among the Tablighi Jamat congregation attendees in Nizamuddin in Delhi.