NEW DELHI: Dr Harsh Vardhan, Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, said on Tuesday, April 6, that 80 per cent of the COVID-19 cases in Punjab contain the UK variant of the virus. He also added that the sudden surge in cases could be due to marriages, local body elections and farmer’s protests. During the health ministers’ meet, which witnessed participation of health ministers of 11 state governments, Dr Vardhan said that the UK variant has been found via genome sequencing.
Dr Vardhan also mentioned about the COVID-19 situation in Chhattisgarh and said that it is one of the worst affected state with almost 10-fold rise in the new COVID-19 cases. Mentioning about Delhi, he said that there has been a declining trend for a very long time but now the numbers are rising again.
Vardhan informed that the Government of India has sent around 50 central teams to Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Punjab where 30, 11 and 9 districts will be covered, respectively.