Chandigarh, April 19: As Covid cases continue to riserapidly across the country, including in Punjab, Chief Minister CaptainAmarinder Singh on Monday ordered stricter restrictions beginning tomorrow,including extension of night curfew timings (8 pm to 5 am), closure of allbars, cinema halls, Gyms, spas, coaching centres, sports complexes, withrestaurants and hotels to be open only for takeaway and home delivery fromMonday to Saturday.
Rates for RT-PCR and Rapid Antigen Testing (RAT) by privatelabs have been reduced to Rs 450 and Rs 300 respectively (with additionalcharges for home collection of the samples), in a bid to promote increasedtesting.
Gatherings of more than 20 persons, including forweddings/cremations, have also been banned across the state, with priorapproval of the district administration needed for all gatherings of more than10 persons, except for cremation.
The new restrictions, which also include closure of allmalls, shops and markets on Sunday, coupled with the ones imposed earlier, willremain in effect till April 30, announced the Chief Minister, directing thePolice department to strictly enforce the restrictions, taking support of civilsociety organisations where needed. All weekly markets have also ordered to beshut down.
Chairing a high level virtual meeting to review the Covidsituation in the state, the chief minister also ordered that all people flyinginto Punjab should have a negative RT-PCR not more than 72 hours old, else theywould have to undergo RAT testing at the airport. He also ordered that peoplewho have attended large gatherings anywhere ( religious/ political/social) tobe mandatorily home quarantined for 5 days and tested as per protocol.
The Chief Minister directed the transport department thatnumber of people in buses/taxis and autos be restricted to 50% of the capacity.
In a bid to check inbound travellers, the Chief Ministeralso directed that Rapid Antigen Testing (RAT) testing booths should be set upat bus stands and railway stations and all passengers checked. All eligiblepersons should be also vaccinating
The Chief Minister rdered postponement of the recruitmentexams for Patwaris and directed for Medical Education department to hold onlineexamination for 1st, 2nd & 3rd year MBBS / BDS /BAMS and 1st year Nursingstudents.
The Chief Minister reiterated his appeal to all religious,social and political leaders to desist from organising large gatherings,encourage vaccination and motivate people for Covid appropriate behaviour,especially wearing of masks and avoiding gatherings.
Guardians of Governance and all ex-servicemen have beenurged to take the lead in ensuring adherence to protocols.
He further said that military hospitals in the cantonmentsin Punjab had assured the state government of all possible help to tackle thesurge, while private hospitals had already been directed to reserve 75% bedsfor Covid patients.
While reviewing the situation in private and governmenthospitals, the Chief Minister directed 75% reservation of L-3 facilities forCovid in all private hospitals providing critical Covid care. He said that noelective surgeries should be conducted in any government or private hospitalstill May 15 and all OPD patients must be tested, besides encouraging them toget vaccinated.
The 104 Helpline shall function 24X7 to provide informationon bed availability in government and private hospitals. Oxygen requirement andavailability will be strictly monitored and ensured for both government andprivate hospitals by a Committee comprising PSIC, Direction Industry and MD,PHSC, while private hospitals will be supported in supply of essentialmedicines such as Remdesivir, Tocilizumab etc, for which MD, PHSC shall be thenodal officer. All elective surgeries in medical colleges also stand postponedfor now.
The containment /micro-containment strategy was left to the DCs to decide, depending on thesituation in their respective zones or areas.
The Chief Minister ordered ramp-up of tracing, and directedrecruitment of manpower if needed, to handle the emergency situation. HealthMinister Balbir Sidhu informed the meeting that DCs have been given Rs 1 croreeach from SDRF for emergency use.
Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan said police personnel are beingplaced at the disposal of the Health Department, along with EducationDepartment personnel including teachers, for more aggressive tracing ofcontacts of Covid positive persons.
Health Secretary Hussan Lal, in a presentation, said thestate’s positivity rate was statis at around 7.8% but had shown a quantum jumpthereafter, going up to 12.6% as of April 15, with Mohali being the worst hitat 36.53%. The spike, he said, could be attributed to the new variant, alongwith people coming back from large gatherings from outside Punjab.
The figure was expected to go up further with more testing,he said, adding that by 5th of May, the state was projected to report 6000cases a day of urgent measures were not implemented in districts of Ludhiana,SAS Nagar (Mohali), Jalandhar , Amritsar and Patiala, which would be thedrivers of the spike.
Dr KK Talwar, head of the Covid expert task force, said morerestrictions were needed to check further surge, as the situation was worrying,given the way things had happened in Delhi, and with the virus clearlymutating. The strain seemed to be more aggressive, though it was still notknown whether it was a double mutant or something else, he added.
DGP Dinkar Gupta said the entire force was being mobilisedto enforce stricter measures, while contingency planning was being done toensure that the department remains on top of the situation. Police nakas werebeing set up around malls and marriage palaces to check violation of the Covidrestrictions, he said, adding that as many as 600 Covid monitors had beeninstalled.