Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Friday announced that the State Government will bear all expenses of Covid-19 patients belonging to below poverty line (BPL) category undergoing treatment in private hospitals.
Earlier, the State Government had announced financial assistance of up to Rs 35,000 to BPL patients.
“All the BPL families who are not covered under Ayushman Bharat scheme would be eligible to get this benefit and the Deputy Commissioner will ensure that this financial assistance scheme reaches grassroots levels,” said the Chief Minister.
The Chief Minister while chairing a review meeting of COVID-19 management with the Deputy Commissioners and Administrative Secretaries held here through video conferencing said that the Deputy Commissioners should ensure that every patient who is eligible for this benefit should get it on priority basis.
Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala and Health and Home Minister also joined the meeting from Chandigarh and Ambala respectively.
Khattar said that presently as government and private hospitals of the state are already putting up a tough fight against the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic, now the focus should be shifted on making adequate arrangements to deal with the patients suffering from post-COVID complications including keeping a close vigil on 'Black Fungus' cases.
"Every Deputy Commissioner has to now act like field commandment and should ensure proper implementation of the schemes and strategies executed by the Government to the grassroots levels,” said the Chief Minister.
The Chief Minister was also apprised that in the coming days a massive awareness campaign would be launched for the awareness of ‘black fungus’ among the masses and special training has been imparted to the doctors for treating the same.
It was informed in the meeting that a plan has been formulated for opening special clinics along with regular OPDs in the civil hospitals across the state to deal with Post-COVID symptoms.
RESERVE AT LEAST 20 BEDS FOR 'BLACK FUNGUS' TREATMENT
The Chief Minister while directing the Deputy Commissioner to keep a close vigil on the increase in the number of fungal infection, Mucormycosis, commonly named as ‘black fungus’ said that reserving atleast 20 beds for the disease treatment should be ensured in all the medical colleges.
He said that every possible effort should be made to dampen the disease spread in its early stage only.
“The Deputy Commissioners should ensure that every hospital of their respective districts should share real-time data of the patients suffering from this deadly disease and the referral for such patients should be made in the medical colleges only,” he directed.
The Chief Minister said that from declaring ‘black fungus’ a notified disease, setting up centres for its prevention and further constituting an expert committee to decide on the distribution of Injection Amphotericin-B, a drug required to treat the said disease, the State Government is proactively focusing on ensuring timely treatment to the patients affected with this deadly infection along with making hands-on strategies to tackle COVID-19 Pandemic.
10,000 OXYGEN CYLINDERS DELIVERED AT DOORSTEPS TILL NOW
The Chief Minister was apprised that in its battle against COVID-19, timely delivery of oxygen cylinders at the doorstep of the home of isolated patients is being ensured and till date about 10,000 cylinders have been delivered to the needy patients. So far, 378 NGOs have been registered on the www.oxygenhry.in portal to supply oxygen cylinders. Khattar directed the officers concerned to ensure that the delivery of this life saving gas should be ensured within a time period of not more than 2 hours.
URGES FARMERS TO END AGITATION
The Chief Minister said that the Deputy Commissioners should make dedicated efforts to convince the agitating farmers to cooperate with the government to fight this pandemic. Khattar said that he too has urged the farmers that understanding the need of the hour they should immediately call off their strike so as to ensure that the virus spread chain is broken.
"This is the biggest crisis of humanity, that we all have to fight together. This pandemic does not belong to any person, a city, or a class. This is the fight of the whole world,” he said.
VACCINATE THOSE INVOLVED IN DOOR TO DOOR HEALTH CHECKUP
The Chief Minister directed that vaccination of every team member involved in conducting door-to-door health screening in the rural areas under the Haryana Villagers General Health Checkup Scheme (HVGHCS) should be done on a priority basis. A team of four including a school teacher, ANM, ASHA worker and a female panchayat member or gram sachiv have been deployed to conduct door-to-door survey in villages of Haryana.
During the meeting, the Chief Minister was apprised that till date 4097 villages have been covered by these multidisciplinary teams, covering 1108415 households and further health checkups of as many as 4757036 persons has been conducted. It was informed that about 284 people are undergoing treatment in Village Isolation Centres. During the meeting, the Chief Minister was apprised that till now more than 51 lakh vaccination doses have been administered to the eligible beneficiaries.