Punjab government on Monday ruled out the possibility of imposing a complete lockdown in the state but said stricter measures will be taken if people don't comply with restrictions.
"Complete lockdown ruled out in the state, but strict measures to be taken if people don't comply with restrictions. All takeaway deliveries from restaurants to be disallowed, only home delivery permitted," Punjab Chief Minister's Office informed.
The Chief Minister's office also informed that all power corporation employees in the state have also been brought into the ambit of frontline workers.
All accredited and yellow card journalists in Punjab are now included in the list of Covid Frontline Warriors, Punjab government informed.
Punjab receives more ventilators
The Punjab government on Sunday said it has provided 809 more ventilators to the districts in the state amid a surge in COVID-19 cases.
While reviewing the COVID situation, Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan directed all the deputy commissioners to get the new ventilators installed by Sunday itself and ensure that not even a single oxygen concentrator and ventilator remain unutilised.
She also ordered from home for private offices so that the chain of COVID-19 transmission could be broken.
Mahajan further directed for increasing the number of level-2 and level-3 beds to provide the best possible care to serious coronavirus patients as 14 of the total 22 districts have been showing more than 10 per cent positivity rate.
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The chief secretary reiterated that the work to set up two makeshift hospitals equipped with ICU facilities exclusively for COVID patients in Mohali and Bathinda has been taken up on the war footing and they will be made functional by the end of this month.
Urging private hospitals to participate in the fight against the pandemic more actively, Mahajan ordered the DCs to extend every possible support to increase bed capacity in private hospitals, according to an official release.
Strict enforcement of restrictions should be ensured
"Strict enforcement of restrictions should be ensured in true spirit to save the precious lives from deadly virus," she emphasised.
Taking note of Delhi and NCR region patients heading towards Punjab for treatment, the chief secretary said patients coming from outside the state should also be treated equally.
She said the Punjab government was coordinating with the Union government to get additional medical oxygen supplies from Bokaro and other parts of the country, besides enhancing its own production.
Mahajan said oxygen, Remdesivir and Tocilizumab should not be prescribed to patients directly and these should be administered within the hospital settings.
It should be the duty of the hospital to ensure availability of these essential items and must not ask patients or their attendants to arrange the same from outside at their level, she noted.
Principal Secretary Health and Family Welfare, Hussan Lal, apprised the chief secretary that the expert group set up for preparing vaccination strategy to 18-45 years age group has submitted its first report.
He also informed that the state would get 3,29,830 doses of COVID-19 vaccine for launching phase-III of the vaccination drive soon.
Lal apprised the chief secretary that last week on an average 6,532 cases were reported daily with an overall positivity rate of 11.7 per cent, while the daily count of cases remained 2,896 during the first peak in the state during September last year.
He added that 2,000 more beds will be added to the existing bed capacity of the government and private medical colleges and district hospitals in the state soon.
(With PTI inputs)
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