The second wave of Covid-19 and the unprecedented fatality rate of Punjab is really proving to be the last straw for the state government too. So far, the Congress government of Punjab led by Captain Amarinder Singh had maintained an inconvenient support for the farmers’ misinformed and motivated agitation. Now, however, with the protestors contributing to a spike of infections in the state’s rural areas, Captain Amarinder Singh’s government seems to be losing its temper. On late Tuesday night, meanwhile, a 50-year-old protesting farmer, Balbir Singh died due to Covid-19 at the Singhu border.
Sonipat Chief Medical Officer Jaswant Singh Punia, as quoted by news agency PTI, said Balbir had been suffering from fever for a couple of days. He was declared brought dead at a government hospital and a test revealed that he had Covid-19. Following the death of the farmer at Singhu, Punjab Minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa in an interview to News18 admitted that the protests on the borders of the national capital by ‘farmers’ had led to a spike in infections in the state of Punjab.
Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa is the minister for Rural Development, Animal Husbandry, Panchayats, Fisheries and Higher Education in Punjab. Upon being probed regarding the spike in Covid-19 infections in Punjab, particularly in rural areas, Bajwa said that the farmers returning from Singhu and Tikri borders are not getting themselves tested. According to him, the resistance to testing on the part of farmers was leading to a sudden surge of infections in rural Punjab. The minister also admitted that not enough testing is happening in the state as of now and stated that arrangements are being made to ramp up the testing capabilities.
Punjab minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa blames farmers returning from protests for the rise in #Covid19 numbers in Punjab.
News18's Pankaj Kapanhi with the details.
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In the state of Punjab, the second wave of Covid-19 is taking a rather unusually catastrophic toll on the people. While the national Covid-19 fatality rate is hovering around the 1 per cent mark, in Punjab, the fatality rate of the same disease stands at a whopping 2.5 per cent. That is at least 1.5 per cent more than the national average!
The main factor which is contributing to the unusually high fatalities in Punjab is that of the ‘farmers’ returning to the state’s rural areas and acting like super-spreaders of the contagion. Interestingly, these super-spreaders, while at the protest sites, observed close to no Covid-appropriate behaviour. In the absence of masks, such ‘protestors’ were exposed to a significantly higher virulent load. Back in Punjab, particularly in the state’s rural areas, those not wearing masks – which is a significant number too, were then exposed to such super spreaders. They too were exposed to a high viral contagion load of the already highly transmissible B.1.617 (first found in India) and B.1.1.7 (first found in the UK) variants.
The government of Punjab’s efforts to combat the Covid-19 pandemic are taking a severe hit due to the obstinacy of the protesting farmers. It therefore comes as no surprise that Captain Amarinder Singh and his ministers are miffed with the agitators.