Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Wednesdaywarned of stricter restrictions if the Covid situation in the state, which isreeling under a massive surge of cases and deaths, does not improve over thenext one week.
The situation will be reviewed again on April 8, anddecision on further curbs may be taken if the Covid spread continues unchecked,the Chief Minister said, at a virtual review meeting with top health,administrative and police officials. “I will watch things for a week, and thenif there is no improvement, we may have to go for stricter curbs,” he said.
Underlining the need for aggressive vaccination,particularly in areas with high case and cities with more than 300 cases,Captain Amarinder directed officials to reach out to eligible people at theMohalla level in the worst affected districts to motivate people to getvaccinated. He also directed stricter enforcement of Covid restrictions andprotocols in the worst affected cities of Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Mohali andAmritsar.
Dr KK Talwar, head of the state’s Covid expert committee,said more enforcement of restrictions was needed in the urban areas, which werereporting higher cases. DGP Dinkar Gupta said since March 19, a total of 1.30lakh people had been taken for RTPCR testing on being found moving aroundwithout masks. Of these, 391 were found positive, he disclosed.
The districts of SAS Nagar, Kapurthala, Patiala, SBSNagar, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Hoshiarpur, Ludhiana are reporting the maximum positivity,while the overall positivity in the state stands at 7.6% as of March 24, 2021.
Taking note of the inconvenience caused to commuters, theChief Minister also ordered doing away with the one-hour silence on Saturdaysto commemorate the Covid warriors.
The Chief Minister expressed concern over the high deathrate due to Covid in Punjab, which Dr Talwar said was due to patients notcoming to hospitals in time and the rate of co-morbidities also being high inthe state. Dr Talwar informed the meeting that 80-85% patients dying havechronic diseases.
The Chief Minister directed the administration to developa robust mechanism to get people with co-morbidities to the hospital at theearliest, besides stricter monitoring of home isolated people.
He also once again appealed to religious and politicalleaders of all hues to promote Covid appropriate behaviour in the interest ofthe people of the state.