Under the visionary leadership of Chief Minister Capt.Amarinder Singh, Punjab state has been very proactively in taking promptdecisions with regard to day-to-day management of COVID-19 pandemic and CentreGovernment should provide free of cost Corona vaccine to Punjab in a stipulatedtime. It was stated by Health and Family Welfare Minister Mr. Balbir SinghSidhu during a press conference held at Punjab Bhawan, Chandigarh here today.
Balbir Sidhu said that stringent measures were taken fromtime to time with view to control the pandemic. Now, Modi’s Government cannotbacktrack from its duty to supply the Corona vaccine. He said that about 5364 COVID relatedunfortunate deaths till date has happened in the State which is about 178deaths per million, In comparison to Delhi where total 10,577 COVID-19 relateddeaths took place and their deaths per million rate is quite high at 528, Weare in a way better position than other State’s. Punjab has a recovery rate of95 % and active cases are declining day-by-day.
Giving details on vaccination preparedness in the State,he said that Punjab is fully prepared for the vaccination drive and State has acapacity of vaccinating 4 lakh persons a day. Elaborating more on this he saidthat State has established robust storage capacity of 1 crore vaccines inState’s own Cold Chain Centres. He stated that Punjab has also achieved morethan 95 % of routine vaccination of Children which is highest in the Country.
Highlighting the major recruitment made in the Health Departmentthe minister said that in past 3 years, total of 10,049 recruitments have beenmade under the Ghar-Ghar Rozgar Yojana of Chief Minister, Punjab. He said 649Specialist, 875 Medical Officer, 960 Staff Nurses and 2250 other para medicalstaff has been recruited on regular basis. Under the National Health Mission on833 specialist & Medical Officer and 4212 para medical, 205 ministerialstaff and 14 class four have been recruited. In addition, 51 staff members havebeen recruited under the State Health Agency.
Balbir Singh Sidhu said that the ambit of the originalscheme Ayushman Bharat of Government of India was limited to only 14 lakhfamilies shortlisted as per SECC Data-2011, while the Punjab Govt. led by ChiefMinister Capt.
Amarinder Singh, decided to increase the number offamilies to about 40 lakhs. Till date treatment services of worth Rs. 574.86 crprovided to 4,99,593 beneficiaries as premium of Rs. 418 Cr. paid to theInsurance company. 6246 Heart Surgeries, 95,122 Dialysis, 9164 Cancer treatments7497 Neo natal and 3532 Joints replacements have been conducted free of cost.
To ensure treatment services to the Drug-abuse victimsduring the pandemic Health Minister stated that, more than 2 lakh new patients(drug-abuse victims) got enrolled during pandemic with various De-addictioncenters of the State.
Speaking on the occasion, Principal Secretary HealthHussan Lal said that vaccine will be given to about 70 lakh people in the Statein phased manner, which includes 1.6 lakh Health workers, other frontlineworkers, people aged above 50 and people with co-morbidities aged below 50. Thecriteria of the age will be counted as on 1 January, 2021 In the first phaseall the 1.6 lakh health care workers will be vaccinated on top priority.
The overall achievement and progress of the HealthDepartment was shared with the media. On the occasion Additional ChiefSecretary (Labour), V.K. Janjua, Secretary Health Kumar Rahul, ManagingDirector Punjab Health System Corporation Tanu Kashyap, Special SecretaryHealth Amit Kumar, OSD to Health Minister Dr. Balwinder Singh, Director HealthServices Dr. GB Singh, Director Family Welfare Dr. Andesh Kang, Director ESIPunjab Dr. OP Gojra, Director Procurement Dr. Rajesh Sharma, State Nodalofficer COVID-19 Dr. Rajesh Bhaskar, and other services officers were alsopresent.