Following the recent surge in cases of COVID-19, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Thursday reviewed the preparedness of the state Health and Family Welfare Department to combat any fresh wave of the pandemic.
The Chief Minister directed the department to immediately issue a detailed advisory for the people to take necessary precautions regarding prevention of the disease. “It is the need of the hour to ensure that people do not fall prey to the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said, adding that the Department should also pull up its socks for tackling any sort of unforeseen contingency.
The state, in the month of July alone, witnessed a total of 9,524 cases of the novel coronavirus registering an increase of more than 260 per cent against the 2,631 cases registered in June. In addition, the state also recorded 46 COVID-related fatalities in July —registering an increase of more than 100 per cent against 22 deaths in June. That was not all! Punjab’s positivity rate also increased from 1.54 per cent on July 1 to 4.68 per cent on July 31.
Till August 3, the state has reported a total of 7,75,237 positive cases, of which 14,676 were reported from April 1 this year, till date. As many as 20,388 persons have succumbed to the deadly virus ever since its outbreak, including 82 casualties reported in the past three months.
Also reviewing the arrangements of the Health Department to tackle vector-borne diseases like Malaria and Dengue, the Chief Minister asked the Department to ensure that adequate arrangements were there for the medicines and other logistics for tackling these diseases. Mann said that the Health Department should work in close coordination with other departments to check the breeding of mosquitoes.
Underlining the need for a massive awareness drive, the Chief Minister said that it will be helpful in sensitizing people against COVID, Dengue, and Malaria.
Mann said that it is the need of hour to ensure that people take maximum precautions for safeguarding themselves. All out efforts must be made in this regard with the active support of the NGOs and general public, he added.
Dwelling on another issue, the Chief Minister asked the Department to expedite the work on Punjab Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences, coming up in SAS Nagar (Mohali). He asked the officers to ensure that the work on this prestigious project is completed by December 2022, envisioning that the project will be instrumental in providing quality health services to the people at affordable cost.