Chandigarh, February 12: The Health Minister Mr. BalbirSingh Sidhu on Friday issued the instructions to all Civil Surgeons toimplement strictly COVID appropriate behaviors and keep testing for COVID-19 atleast 1000 per million populations.
Giving details in press communique, the Health Minister Mr.Balbir Singh Sidhu said that to accelerate contact tracing of COVID patients,instructions have been issued to trace at least 20 contacts of every positivepatient and get them tested as well. He said that contact tracing increased fromabout 4 contacts per case to nearly 12 contacts per positive case.
Mr. Sidhu Stated that at the peak, Punjab used to report2500 to 3000 cases per day. Due to good containment efforts of Captain AmrinderSingh led Punjab Government, during last two months, the number of cases havebeen decreasing steadily and average daily cases reported came down to about200 per day with recovery rate of 95%.
Recent few days have seen an up rise in number of COVID-19cases in the State with 309 cases being reported on 11.2.2021 said HealthMinister adding that this trend indicates, COVID-19 is not over yet and we areat risk of witnessing a surge in number of cases which strictly requires theneed for following COVID Appropriate Behaviors like social distancing, wearingof mask and hand sanitization.
Divulging about the vaccination programme, Mr. Sidhu saidthat so far 2.05 Lakh Health Care Workers and 1.77 Lakh Front Line Workers havebeen registered for COVID-19 vaccination. About 74,286 HCW and 23,085 FLW havebeen vaccinated.
Health Minister further said that facility of registeringbeneficiaries for vaccination of Front Line Workers of Revenue and PRIdepartments is still open till 17 February. The last date or availing firstdose of vaccination for HCW has been extended from 12th February to 19February.
He assured that the vaccine is safe and effective and everyHCW and FLW must get vaccinated. It is for their safety and that of theirfamilies.
Pointing out the present status of COVID-19, Mr. Sidhu saidthat across the world there is a surge in number of cases with countries likeUSA, Brazil, France, Spain, UK and Italy recording large number of daily cases.USA is at the top with about 1,00,000 lakh cases being reported daily but Indiais witnessing a decreasing trend in number of cases.
Expressing concern over states where COVID cases are rising,he said that Maharashtra and Kerala have constantly recorded a high number ofdaily cases so that Punjab Government has taken prompt decisions to control thespread of corona virus in the State. As of today 80 containment zone and 2081micro containment zones have been declared by the Health department.