Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, on Sunday during his #AskCaptain initiative on Facebook Live expressed his disappointment at many natives of the state for not abiding face mask and social distancing norms, and cautioned all of them to stick to norms formed by the government else Punjab would become Maharashtra, Delhi and Gujarat as the spread of COVID was concerned.
Further adding to it, CM said on Friday alone, 4,600 people were challaned for not wearing masks, and 160 for spitting in public and 20-25 for not observing social distancing. "Why don’t you follow the rules? We had to lift the curfew as we cannot keep people inside for so long. But be responsible. Wear masks and ensure social distancing. I am not saying this. The doctors are telling you to do that. Do not let Punjab go down the other states way. We have managed it well so far," he said.
Reportedly, the state had 2.5% of the country’s population, it was currently contributing a mere 0.5% of the COVID cases.
Although the state had adequate essential equipment to manage any further spread of the pandemic, which it had been largely able to control so far, the CM said he did not wish the stocks to be pulled out of storage for use as his entire focus was on saving lives.
Terming the anti-COVID `Mission Fateh’ the battle of the people of Punjab, Amarinder exhorted them to follow medical advice to check the spread of Covid-19, and to consult their doctors immediately in case of any symptoms of cough, body ache, fever etc to rule out the pandemic infection.
Elaborating on the state’s roadmap to handle the pandemic, the Amarinder said with 2,663 total positive cases, of which 2,128 had recovered, Punjab’s situation had been under control so far. As of June 8, he said, 53 people had died of the infection.
Despite this, however, the state government was not taking any chances, said Amarinder. In the first stage, 4,248 beds in government hospitals had been set aside, with another 2,014 now being added, while the private hospitals had allocated 950 beds for COVID patients. The total number of isolation centres identified to accommodate a large number of cases if the crisis aggravates stands at 52 government and 195 private, he added.
Of the 554 ventilators available, only two was in use, as of Monday, the CM said, adding that in addition to the equipment already handed over to hospitals and other frontline workers, the Health Department had stocks of 4,88,000 N95 masks, 64 lakh triple-layer masks, 2,28,000 PPE kits and 2,223 oxygen cylinders.
Amarinder, however, reiterated that he hoped that the need to use this equipment would never arise.