81% of Punjab samples sent for sequencing show UK variant: Amarinder

Eighty-one per cent of the 401 samples sent by the government for genome sequencing have tested positive for the UK variant of Covid-19, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said on Tuesday.
 

Expressing concern over the Covid-19 situation, the chief minister urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to widen the vaccination ambit to cover those younger than 60 as the mutant has been found to be infecting young people more, an official statement quoting him said.
 

Amarinder Singh also appealed to people to get themselves vaccinated and stressed the need for the Central government to urgently open up vaccination for a larger section of the population.
 

“The process needs to be expedited," he said, pointing to the fact that experts had found the existing Covishield vaccine to be equally effective against the UK variant - B.1.1.7. It was essential to vaccinate more and more people to break the chain of transmission, he said.