With all the political parties busy in electioneering, and holding massive rallies and public meetings in poll-bound Punjab, the State’s Deputy Chief Minister-cum-Health and Family Welfare OP Soni is in favour of prohibiting such large gatherings amid Covid surge across the State.
A day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Ferozepur rally, Soni on Tuesday pushed the ball in the Centre’s court demanding a ban on election rallies. “We have the Central Government’s guidelines. Since they haven’t imposed any restriction on big rallies as of now, they will continue. However, I personally feel that if we can close schools and colleges, big rallies should not be organised either,” said Soni, interacting with the media.
At the same time, he maintained that Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi will be holding a meeting to decide on organising the rallies. “Covid cases are rising in large numbers in the state. Looking into that, our Chief Minister will take an emergency meeting, in which we will discuss the big rallies issue and arrive at some conclusion,” he added.
Soni’s statement comes on the day the Aam Aadmi Party supremo and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has been tested positive, days after he led thousands of party workers and leaders in a Shanti March at Patiala on December 31 (Friday) without wearing the mask and violating all norms of social distancing.
During his Punjab tour, Kejriwal also paid obeisance at the Kali Mata Mandir and Gurudwara Shri Dukh Nivaran Sahib in Patiala. The next day, he visited Sri Ram Tirath Asthan at Amritsar, and later visited Dera Sachkhand Ballan in Jalandhar. And all during his stay, he was not seen wearing a mask anywhere.
‘ORDERS TO BE ENFORCED STRICTLY’
Deputy Chief Minister Soni also made it clear that in view of the rapid increase in the number of corona patients in Punjab, restrictions have been imposed, including making the wearing of masks mandatory. “Apart from this, schools and colleges have also been closed. Night curfew has also been implemented within the municipal limits from 10 pm to 5 am. These restrictions will be strictly implemented so that corona can be stopped from the further spread,” he said.
Interestingly, Soni’s statement assumes significance as the day the State Government announced COVID restrictions, the Chief Minister Channi addressed massive gatherings - one of Anganwadi workers at Anaj Mandi in Morinda and another at Lovely professional university in Jalandhar. Channi was seen dancing amidst a crowd of students, clicking selfies using students’ mobiles, while disregarding the State Government’s orders to ensure the wearing of mask at public places mandatory.
BJP TO GO AHEAD WITH PM’S RALLY TODAY
Despite Covid-19 curbs imposed by the State Government amidst a surge in cases, the Bharatiya Janata Party has decided to go ahead with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s scheduled Ferozepur rally on Wednesday. Modi is scheduled to lay the foundation stones of a satellite centre for the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, two medical colleges, besides many other projects. BJP leaders argued that it would be a combined event of the Centre and the State Government, where Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi will also be present. Later, Modi is scheduled to address a rally, which is expected to witness a gathering of nearly three lakh.
TESTING TO BE INCREASED
Considering a surge in Covid cases, the State Government has decided to increase testing. “The employees of the Health Department are on strike, because of which the testing is less,” said Soni while ordering all the Civil Surgeons to increase the testing immediately. Admitting that the health employees’ strike was impacting Covid control measures in the state, Soni said: “We will issue yet another appeal to the striking employees as we need maximum resources to be ready for the third wave.”
PUNJAB COVID TALLY CROSSES 1,000 MARK AFTER 7 MONTHS
Punjab’s daily Covid -19 count on Tuesday crossed the 1,000-mark after a gap of nearly seven months. The State reported 1,027 fresh cases of the Covid -19 at the positivity rate of 6.49 per cent. The last time State reported over 1,000 cases was on June 11 when 1201 fresh cases were reported in a day. With this, the State’s Covid -19 tally has reached 6,06,927, with active cases mounting to 2,686.
Notably, Punjab has been reporting less than 50 cases for more than 10 weeks till December 28, but the figure touched a triple digit on December 29, when it reached 100. Since then the state has been witnessing an upward surge. In the highest single-day spike over the past six months, Patiala, on Tuesday, reported whopping 366 positive cases at the positivity rate of 15.43 percent. A day before, 143 cases were reported.
Among other districts, SAS Nagar (Mohali) reported 149 cases at the positivity rate of 8.33 percent, and Ludhiana reported 103 fresh cases at the positivity rate of 4.38 percent. However, Pathankot district, with 88 fresh cases, registered the highest positivity rate of 17.36 percent.
41 NURSING STUDENTS OF LUDHIANA COLLEGE TEST POSITIVE
As many as 41 students of DMC College of Nursing, Malakpur, have tested positive for COVID on Tuesday. All the students are said to be BSc Nursing first year. “Out of the total infected students, 20 have been admitted to Dayanand Medical College and Hospital while the rest are in institutional quarantine at the college itself. The condition of all the students is stable,” said DMCH Medical Superintendent Dr Ashwani Chaudhary. Some students in the college had started showing symptoms on Sunday. More samples are being collected from the college for testing.
100 TEST +VE AT PATIALA MEDICAL COLLEGE
A day before, over 60 doctors and 30 MBBS students of Government Rajindra Hospital and Medical College, Patiala, were tested positive for COVID-19, with majority of them being resident doctors. Alarmed, the Patiala District Administration and Health Department held a meeting, and decided to close down the Medical College till January 15. The departments of radio diagnosis, surgery, and gynaecology have been hit severely, with some resident doctors of paediatrics and medicine also testing positive.
The Patiala Health Department, after a sudden rise in cases, had to write a letter to the Rajindra Hospital to follow Covid-appropriate behaviour strictly. The letter reads: “Doctors, in large numbers, have already tested positive. This will hamper health services at the hospital; therefore, Covid protocol should strictly be followed.” Deputy Commissioner Sandeep Hans held a late-night meeting with college and hospital authorities at Government Medical College. The authorities have sent all MBBS students of the medical college, including positive cases, to home. Besides, the authorities are also considering to send other MBBS students, who have not tested positive, to their homes also. Deputy Commissioner Hans, after chairing a review meeting, said that it appears that all cases are of Omicron variant, and the samples had been sent for genome sequencing.