India News | Get Tested for COVID-19 at the Earliest: Punjab CM's Appeal to People

Chandigarh, Sep 5 (PTI) Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Saturday appealed to the people of the state to get themselves tested for coronavirus at the earliest, saying any delay could prove fatal for them.

He also categorically rejected allegations of organ harvesting of COVID-19 victims, and termed videos on social media claiming such as "rumours and completely baseless".

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Notably, several rumours, including that of alleged organ harvesting of coronavirus patients, have posed a new challenge to the Punjab Health department as people in some villages are preventing medical teams from collecting samples for testing.

"Don't fall prey to such false propaganda, which is being spread only to mislead you," Singh told people, adding the only reason bodies of COVID-19 victims are cremated by people wearing PPE suits is to avoid infection.

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"Some hypocrites are trying to mislead you on social media with false information. Our former president (Pranab Mukherjee) was also cremated in a similar manner because he had tested positive for coronavirus infection," he pointed out.

Urging people not delay testing by ignoring COVID-19 symptoms or by trying medicines on their own, the Singh said all the deaths being reported are of patients in the advanced stage of the disease.

The chief minister has appealed to people to follow the instructions of the government and doctors' advice to save themselves and Punjab, according to a state government release.

Targetting the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), he urged people not to be "misguided" by the "vicious propaganda" of the opposition party.

The chief minister said the oximeters that the AAP was offering to give people of Punjab were no substitute for testing.

"These oximeters will not tell you if you have coronavirus infection or not. They just measure the oxygen saturation level in the body, and low oxygen level is not necessarily an indication of the infection," he said.

AAP national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had on September 2 said that his party workers would check the oxygen level of people with oximeters in villages of Punjab.

Pointing out that his government has already distributed 10,000 oximeters and was in the process of procuring another 50,000, Singh reiterated that use of these machines only would not save lives. "Going to a hospital only in case of low oxygen level might be too late," he warned.

Stressing that this was not the time to indulge in politics but to fight the coronavirus pandemic together, the chief minister said, "Unfortunately, the AAP is busy politicising the crisis even after assuring the state government of their support."

"Aren't they ashamed?" he asked rhetorically, adding all parties should support his government and consider the viral disease a common enemy. "Won't they support us if there is a war with Pakistan or China?"

He also described as "false propaganda" the AAP's claims that Punjab was doing badly on the coronavirus front as compared to Delhi.

"The facts and figures expose these false claims," he said, adding with 1.9 crore population, Delhi has 1.82 lakh cases while Punjab, with 2.80 crore population, has 60,000 cases. "The deaths in Delhi are three-fold as compared to Punjab," Singh said.

The Punjab chief minister, however, clarified that he was not citing these numbers because he wanted Delhi to have more cases.

"I pray to 'Wahe Guru' (Lord Almighty) that all states, including Delhi, should win the war against coronavirus and succeed in saving lives."

Singh assured the people that there is no shortage of beds, medicines, ventilators or doctors to tackle the spike in cases in Punjab.

The death toll from COVID-19 in Punjab rose to 1,808 on Saturday with 69 more fatalities while the infection tally jumped to 61,527 with 1,515 new cases.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)