With Covid UK Strain Most Prevalent, Punjab Extends Curbs Amid Spike

In the past 24 hours alone, 2,868 fresh cases were reported from across the state with 59 deaths.

Punjab today extended its Covid-19 curbs till April 10 as the number of cases and fatalities continued to escalate. The UK strain of the virus has emerged as the most prevalent among all in the state, Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh said today, directing the Health Department to hike the number of vaccination sites. Reviewing the situation with Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan and other top officials, Mr Singh said all restrictions in place till March 31 will continue till April 10, after which they would be again reviewed, a government statement said. He ordered the launch of a vaccination drive in prisons in the wake of 40 women in Patiala's Nabha Open Jail testing positive for Coronavirus. In the past 24 hours alone, 2,868 fresh cases were reported from across the state with 59 deaths. This constituted a considerable section of the overall 56,211 new cases reported from across the country. Data shows that 326 of the 401 Covid-19 positive samples sent initially for genome sequencing at the National Centre for Disease Control were found to be of the UK variant. Up to 85 of the 95 samples sent to the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research in New Delhi, too, were of the same nature, the statement said.