Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Tuesday announced the extension of benefits of existing schemes for persons with disability to those suffering from any disability caused by Mucormycosis, commonly referred to as Black Fungus.

He made this announcement while reviewing the state’s Covid situation through a virtual conference. The benefits will be extended as per the nature and degree of the disability, he said.

The CM directed the medical education department to also establish Post COVID Care centres in government medical college hospitals for free follow-up of the cured cases of Mucormycosis.

Though Mucormycosis cases had declined, with only three to four cases reported per day last week, he directed the concerned departments to monitor the situation and keep close tabs on patients recovering from Covid.

Health secretary Hussan Lal, in a brief presentation, informed the meeting that follow-up with Tab Posaconazole has to continue for three to six months after therapy with Inj Amphotericin B.

Meanwhile, citing a current demand of more than two lakh Covid vaccine doses for the second dose alone, Punjab CM on Tuesday demanded 40 lakh more doses from the Centre on an urgent basis to inoculate the state’s eligible population.

The state was expecting 2.46 lakhs vaccines to arrive today but the Chief Minister, during a Covid review virtual meeting, noted that vaccine remains in short supply, having run out of Covishield vaccine and left with a mere 3500 Covaxin doses as of Monday.

Punjab has already vaccinated more than 90 lakh eligible persons (nearly 37 per cent of the eligible population) and has been utilising the stock without any wastage, said the CM. While the 1st dose has been administered to 75 lakh people, 15 lakh had got the second dose too.

The Centre needs to arrange for immediate delivery to the state to meet the shortfall and enable inoculation of all those needing the second dose while continuing with the vaccination of other eligible persons, said the CM.

Pointing out that the doses being supplied to private hospitals were getting wasted as people preferred to go to government hospitals for free inoculation, health secretary Hussan Lal informed the meeting that the state has sought diversion of the stocks from the private hospitals but had not received any response so far from the Centre.