PunjabChief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Saturday ordered mandatory full Covidvaccination or negative RTPCR report for all those entering the state fromMonday, with strict monitoring particularly of those coming from HimachalPradesh and Jammu, which are showing increased positivity.
Amidreports of Covid cases in schools, the Chief Minister has also directed thatonly fully vaccinated teaching and non-teaching staff, or those recentlyrecovered from Covid, should physically teach in schools and colleges, withonline learning option to remain available to all children.
Hefurther ordered prioritisation of teachers and non-teaching staff forvaccination, with special camps to be held to ensure that all are covered withthe first dose within this month and those due for the 2nd dose to be alsoprioritised. Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu suggested reducing the gapbetween the two doses to prioritise second dose for teachers and other schoolstaff.
Thedirectives came at a Covid review meeting chaired by Captain Amarinder Singh,who expressed concern about the positivity in Himachal Pradesh and other partsof the country, which has caused positivity in Punjab to also increasemarginally to 0.2% in the last week, with RO going up to 1.05%. The Cambridgestudy has also predicted that cases are likely to double in the next 64 days,he warned, announcing new restrictions in addition to those already in force.
TheChief Minister has ordered at least 10000 test samples of students and stafffrom schools to be undertaken every day. Districts/cities where positivity isabove 0.2 % have been asked to shut down physical education for Classes 4 andbelow until the situation improves.
Therule on full vaccination or negative RTPCR report will apply to all thoseentering Punjab by road, rail or air, announced the Chief Minister, adding thatif a person is found to not have eitherof these, RAT testing shall be mandatory, unless he/she has recently recoveredfrom Covid.
Onschools, which have recently reopened for certain classes in the state, theChief Minister said while there were some reports of high positivity inschools, the fact was that intensive testing had shown that the positivityamongst school students is 0.1 % against overall positivity of 0.2 % in thepast one week. Since 9th August, 41 students and 1 staff member in governmentschools have tested positive.
Callingfor strict vigil, he directed the concerned departments to ensure that onlyfully vaccinated teaching as well as non-teaching staff shall physically teachin schools and colleges. In case the whole teaching staff is not fullyvaccinated, those who are fully vaccinated can attend to the students in theschool and virtual classes can be taken by teachers who are not fullyvaccinated. The number of studentsshould be suitably curtailed if enough fully vaccinated teachers are not available,ordered the Chief Minister, directing schools to allow seating of only onechild per bench.
CaptainAmarinder said parents of school going children should also be encouraged toimmediately get vaccinated in order to enable the physical learning in schoolswithout any interruptions.
Evenas he expressed satisfaction over commencement of operations at the WholeGenome Sequencing Lab at GMCH Patiala in association with PATH, with none ofthe 8 samples tested there so far showing only delta variant, the ChiefMinister noted that the month wise whole genome sequencing sent to NCDC hasshown that the Delta variant remains predominant. Beginning today, 92 samples will be everythree weeks for genome sequencing. The process for inclusion of VRDL Patiala inINSACOG (Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics) was on, the meeting wasinformed.
TheChief Minister further noted that post Covid care was now available at allGMCHs and District Hospitals. The meeting was informed that Mucormycosis caseshave come down substantially and only 1 case was reported last week as opposedto 6 in the previous week. Due disability benefits as per the eligibility arebeing provided to patients.