Rulingout a complete lockdown for now, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singhon Friday directed the DCs of the six worst-affected districts to furthertighten the micro-containment strategy and ensure 100% testing.
Lockdownis not a solution, as it will lead to exodus of the labourers and force them togo to states with even lesser medical facilities, said Captain Amarinder,directing the district administrations to enforce all restrictions strictly andto stop dine-in facility in all high positivity areas, with Covid testing ofstaff in restaurants by the Health Department.
Urgingthe industry to set up their own Covid treatment centres and makeshifthospitals, he stressed on teamwork to fight the Covid battle. He also directedthe Chief Secretary to look into encouraging retired doctors and nurses, alongwith final year MBBS students, to rejoin for handling L2/L3 facilities, andsuggested setting up of temporary healthcare facilities in halls/gymnasiumsetc.
TheChief Minister was chairing a virtual emergency meeting to review the Covidsituation in the six worst hit districts of Ludhiana, SAS Nagar (Mohali),Jalandhar, Bathinda, Patiala and Amritsar.
Expressingconcern over the fewer number of containment zones in Mohali and two otherdistricts that were among the most badly hit six districts, the Chief Ministerordered immediate steps to strengthen the containment and testing mechanism.Micro-containment strategy must be strictly implemented and encouraged, hesaid, directing all district officers to give this their highest priority tocontrol the spread.
Evenas he appreciated the good work being done by the officers despite thesechallenging times, the Chief Minister expressed concern over the fact that 14districts in the state currently had over 10% positivity rate, while 5 had morethan 60% bed occupancy.
Aprefab 100 bedded hospital will come up at Mohali and a 250 bedded temporaryhospital is being set up near the Bathinda refinery, with Oxygen supply fromthe refinery, he said, urging all departments to be prepared for the peak andidentify areas in the various districts for establishment of temporaryhospitals. While the occupancy at level 2 is still manageable, but theoccupancy in Level 3 has already reached 82 %. An additional 2000 beds are being added in Punjab with 600 beds beingadded at the GMCH Patiala, and Amritsar, he noted.
Takingnote of the shortage of Fateh Kits, mainly on account of lack of Oxymeters, heacceded to the Chief Secretary’s suggestion to request recovered patients toreturn their Oxymeters for use in kits after proper sanitisation.
DrKK Talwar, who heads the Covid expert group advising the state government, said all hospitals had been provided detailedguidelines to check Oxygen wastage. Further, patients who are recovering wellare being shifted to L2 to free L3 beds made available, he said.
ChiefSecretary Vini Mahajan said the Punjab University, Chandigarh, had been advisednot to hold senate elections at present in view of the grave situation.
Earlier,Health Secretary Hussan Lal, in a brief presentation, pointed to the risingpositivity and case fatality ratio, and disclosed that the Punjab positivityrate currently stood at 12, with SAS Nagar (Mohali) district reporting thehighest at 22.9.
AmritsarDC and Police Commissioner Sukhchain Gill raised concerns over the Oxygencrisis, which needed firefighting every day through emergency supplies fromother districts via green corridors. Oxygen audits were being done in bothgovernment and private hospitals, they said. With 196 of the 200 L3 beds in government hospitals occupied, thedistrict had added 30 more beds. Four containment and 32 micro containmentzones were in place in the district and steps were being taken to scale upcontact tracing. Medical Education Minister OP Soni informed the meeting thatOPDs in all medical colleges in Amritsar had been closed and staff diverted toCovid duty.
BathindaDC said to supplement the district administration’s efforts, a 25-bedded temporaryhospital was being set up at Bhatindarefinery, with oxygen supply from the refinery.
LudhianaDC Virendra Kumar said the defunct Oxygen unit at Vardhman mills had beenrevived, and so had been another. The district, with positivity standing at 16%as of April 30, was getting a large number of patients from other places,including several from Delhi and Gurgaon, he said. There are currently 2containment and 8 micro containment zones in the district. Ludhiana CP saidwhile 27 police personnel had been infected in this week, none of them wereserious as they had all been vaccinated.
Themeeting was informed that Oxygen audits had led to reduction in demand inPatiala district, where the containment areas had been increased and 100%testing was being done in such zones. More beds had been added at both L2 andL3 levels in the district.
Theworst-affected Mohali district was currently showing 90% bed occupancy, themeeting was informed, with DC Girish Dayalan disclosing that a large number ofpatients had come from Delhi-NCR. With other regions in the tri-city notagreeing to a weekend lockdown, the situation was grim, he said.