Chandigarh, April 11: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Friday said that the projections by medical experts suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic would peak in India by mid-September, and around 58 per cent of Indians would get infected, with 87 per cent of people likely to be affected in Punjab.

"We have very senior and top-class medical officers who have said they expect it (COVID-19) will peak in mid-September, at the point when 58 per cent of the population will be infected," Singh said at a video conference, He said that 87 per cent of people are likely to be affected in Punjab, according to an official release. India Clears First Batch of Hydroxychloroquine to 13 Countries Amid COVID-19 Pandemic, Check List.

Singh on Friday indicated that his government was seriously thinking of extending the lockdown as the time did not appear to be right for lifting the restrictions.

"Given the projections for India and the global trend of COVID-19, this is just the start of the war and the situation threatens to get worse over the next few months for India. In the circumstances, no government could afford to ease the restrictions. We have to check the spread of the infections," Singh said according to an official release.

The Chief Minister said that most of the 27 positive cases, the highest daily increase so far reported on Thursday, were cases of "secondary transmission". He described it as an indication of the state moving into the stage of "community transmission".

"The situation could seriously worsen in the coming weeks. The predictions are horrendous, but we are doing our best," he said, adding that while currently the numbers were low in Punjab compared with most other states, it cannot remain isolated as the pandemic spreads further.

According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the total number of cases in Punjab have climbed to 101 including 4 cured and discharged and 8 deaths.

"The Chief Minister rejected as absolutely insufficient the Rs 15000 crore announced yesterday by the Union Government for the nation's health infrastructure, saying, How can this be enough for the nearly 1.4 billion people of India? No state has the resources needed to fight the battle without the help of the Central Government and they have to come forward to help the states, he said, adding that he will take up the issue of more funds to enable every state to fight the war," the release said.

Reiterating the state government's demand for a special economic package to deal with the crisis, Singh pointed out that the Centre had released part of Punjab's pending GST arrears over the past few days but those would barely meet the normal needs of salaries, etc. He stressed the need for the Centre to come forward with financial assistance for combatting the COVID-19 crisis, saying it was the responsibility of the Government of India as states had to ensure food, free rations, shelter etc for the poor people.

"Punjab was taking care of the basic needs of the lakhs of migrant labourers stuck here but even industry could not continue to pay them indefinitely without assistance," he added. The Chief Minister said his government was gearing up for every eventuality and had planned for making arrangements in four phases - for 2000 patients, 10000 patients, 30000 patients and 1 lakh patients needing isolation and treatment.

"While ventilators, masks etc were sufficient for the present, more had been ordered and would start coming in the next few days," he added. When asked about Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) kits, the Chief Minister said with two Ludhiana manufacturers getting approval for making such kits and the state would start getting 5,000 of them from next week. He also said Punjab could provide the excess to other states, with directly or through the Government of India. With regard to testing, the Chief Minister said that the 2,877 tests conducted so far were simply not enough, given Punjab's population of 2.8 crore.

"Testing was a constraint as only two hospitals in Punjab were given permission to test initially, along with PGI Chandigarh, but one more was now being added along with two private labs," he said."With 25000 Rapid Testing Kits also expected to arrive, mass testing in hotpots will also begin from Monday, he said. In the next few days, the health department would get more aggressive with testing and random testing will be done in areas of concentration," he added.

Responding to a question on Tablighi Jamaat (TJ), the Chief Minister said that his government had received a list of 651 who had entered the state, and of these, 636 had so far been traced and 27 found positive (including 10 contacts of these TJ Nizamuddin attendees).

"Among the nearly 1.5 lakh NRIs and foreign returnees, the state had traced and quarantined the majority," Singh said, adding that the quarantine period was over in 33166 cases of foreign travel.

Replying to questions on the harvesting of wheat, scheduled to begin on April 15, the Chief Minister said the state was gearing up to handle another bumper harvest and would be going in for district wise and village wise marketing/procurement.

"The number of Mandis has been increased from 1800 to 3800 this year in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. Apart from police and district officials, Guardians of Governance personnel would also man the Mandis, with NCC volunteers also likely to pitch in," Singh said.

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