Chandigarh, April 26: Responding to Chief Minister CaptainAmarinder Singh’s plea for help in the war-like Covid situation, the WesternCommand of the Indian Army on Monday extended all possible help, includingmedical staff and medically trained combatants, to Punjab to meet the exigentshortage in hospital, along with support in reviving the state’s old Oxygenplants that are currently lying defunct.
Lt Gen RP Singh, AVSM, VSM, GOC-in-C, Western Command, at avirtual meeting of the Chief Minister with senior Command officials, alsooffered to provide staff to run the 100-bed Covid facility proposed to be setup in the building loaned to the state government by CSIR for the purpose.
The Chief Minister later said at another review meeting withtop officials of the state government and medical experts that the governmentwas also approaching the Union Home Ministry to provide manpower and ICU bedsthrough the Border Security Force (BSF).
Technical and specialist cover will be provided by theCommand Centre, Lt Gen Singh told the Chief Minister during their VC, addingthat 15 trained nurses had already been sent to Patiala to support the civicstaff. Further, experts will be sent to visit the defunct Oxygen plants atexisting industrial units to assess their status and extend whatever supportneeded for their restoration.
Though their resources were stressed on account ofrequirements also from other states, including Delhi, Haryana and Jammu &Kashmir, the army officials said they will extend all possible help to Punjabto tackle the situation, which the Chief Minister said was critical, withLudhiana alone reporting 1300+ cases today and Oxygen allocation from thecentre currently at only 105 tonnes as against the demand of 300 tonnes daily.Of the 105 tonnes, the state was actually getting only 85 tonnes as the restwas being diverted to PGI Chandigarh.
The Chief Minister said later at the internal review meetingthat the state government was making all efforts to secure medical Oxygen tosupplement its depleting stocks.The meeting was informed by Secretary Industries, Alok Shekhar, that Jalandhar andAmritsar had been facing crisis situation on the Oxygen front for the past fewdays, which the state had somehow handled through judicious management.
While he was not proposing lockdown, which leads to exodusand economic woes, the Chief Minister made it clear that the other stringentsteps were being taken to manage the escalating crisis. Punjab yesterdayreported over 7000 cases, with the situation expected to worsen, especially insouth Punjab amid the rising number of cases in neighbouring states, he pointedout.
The Chief Minister directed the Health Department to followup with the Centre for vaccine supplies as the state presently had only 1.76lakh Covishield and 22000 Covaxin doses in stock.
Reacting to reports of threats of strike by certainorganisations of health/medical workers, the Chief Minister made it clear thatthreats will be met with dismissal “as we cannot tolerate this kind of nonsensein a war-like situation.”
Health Secretary Hussan Lal disclosed that in response todirectives from the Chief Minister, 2000 beds would be added to strengthen theL 2 and L 3 bed capacity in Government and private hospitals. While 900 bedswould be added to Govt. Medical Colleges Patiala, Amritsar and Faridkot(Jalalabad), 542 would be added to Private Medical Colleges;- PIMS, Gian Sagar,Adesh, DMC, CMC. The District Hospitals will get another 300 L2 beds, while 250beds would be placed at a temporary hospital near the Bathinda Refinery.