On Friday evening, Punjab CM went live (video embedded below) in a public address to Punjabis all over the world in which he highlighted the worsening situation in Punjab.
Punjab is suffering from higher and higher cases of COVID along with deaths due to the same. He claims that UK-based strain is wreaking havoc which was not seen in the first wave of COVID.
He claimed that the objective now is to contain the spread of the virus and the way to achieve that is to reduce gatherings.
To this end, many measures like timings of shops have been set. He explains that in the normal timings people would gather and this is how the virus keeps on claiming more and more people.
He pointed interesting deviations from the first wave that in this wave villages are more affected than cities and younger people are contracting the disease more.
Then, he exhorts Punjabis to not ignore any symptoms citing the nature of a Punjabi to put caution to the wind and believe that the symptoms are nothing.
He asks if a common woman and man of Punjab is a doctor, then how can we judge for ourselves whether we have common cold, malaria, or typhoid.
He requests any person who suspects he may be infected with COVID to get checked at a doctor, and then the latter will decide what the disease is and what to do.
If tested positive for COVID, then the person will have to get the treatment so that the chain of virus spread gets broken, claims the CM.
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He then explains the three levels of disease and how they are to be treated – Level I, II, III.
Level I are those people who get themselves diagnosed early and are then treated at home. In Level II are those are late and in this case oxygen via medical equipment is required. Then there are those who delay the most, and then get assigned in Level III. The CM rues this tendency of Punjabis to delay when he claims that we lose many people in Level III.
He claims with sadness in his voice that we all have lost 9980 fellow Punjabis in Punjab.
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Why? He claims because we ignore, we think this will happen to someone else.
Then, he mentions religious and spiritual leaders in Punjab and thanks them for their support in handling COVID. Likewise, he mentions a couple of businessmen who are living abroad for their support.
He requests Punjabis in all parts of the world to come forward and help their mother state in any and every way they can.
He again requests his brethren to take a serious approach towards COVID.
And then comes the scary part. He informs peak is not yet in sight, and government experts claims around May 15 we should see a peak and then the number of daily COVID infections should reduce.
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However, the third wave will begin in September.
He then elaborates Spanish Flu of 1918 and that it too came in spikes and in India stayed for four years. He claims and this writer agrees that we do not know the number of waves COVID will have in India and the world.
Finally, the CM empathises will all people in Punjab who may have to suffer because of the rules the government has to enact to contain the pandemic.
He claims all this is for you, your family, and your Punjab.
In closing, the CM thanks God and prays for better situation for every Punjabi.
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[Live] My address to the people of Punjab. I urge everyone to help fight #Covid19 by taking all needed precautions and getting yourself tested immediately in case of any symptoms. https://t.co/BmfyJBjk44
— Capt.Amarinder Singh (@capt_amarinder) May 7, 2021