With the hill State witnessing a sharp spike in Covid-19 cases on a daily basis, Himachal Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Monday directed to expand and increase the health infrastructure in the state to meet the situation.
The Chief Minister while presiding over a review meeting of Covid-19 situation in Mandi and Kullu districts said that work on prefabricated hospital at Bangrotu and Mother Child Hospital Mandi must be expedited and completed at the earliest so that oxygenated bed capacity in the district could be increased.
He said that the Transport Department must ensure effective sanitization of buses and other public transport.
The shopkeepers must also ensure to strictly follow ‘No Mask, No Service’ policy. Apart from this, the private bus operators must also be requested to properly sanitize their buses and also ensure plying buses without overcrowding, he said.
The Chief Minister said that the district administration must ensure that social functions such as marriages etc. strictly follow the maximum limit prescribed for such events. The district administration must also ensure that adequate arrangements are made to meet the demand in case of any major surge in the cases.
Effective regulation of devotees must also be ensured in temples and other religious places to avoid overcrowding during the Navratri festival, he added.
Thakur further said that Kullu district being a major tourist place witnesses the arrival of lakhs of tourists every year. Steps must be taken to ensure that all the tourists visiting the district strictly follow SoPs issued from time to time. He directed the Police Department to ensure that no casualness be adopted by the tourists, particularly in tourist spots such as Manikaran, Kasol, Manali etc.
KEEP AN EYE ON PEOPLE COMING FROM HIGH LOAD STATES, SAYS CM
Himachal Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur asked the elected representatives of Panchayati Raj Institutions to keep an eye on people visiting from other states, particularly from the high load states in view of surge in COVID-19 cases. “As far as possible, such people must be asked to remain in home quarantine for 10 to 14 days and getting themselves tested for COVID-19,” the Chief Minister said while virtually interacting with over 3000 elected representatives of three-tiers of Panchayati Raj Institutions of the state from Mandi.
The CM had a day before announced to make it mandatory for people coming from seven high load states to produce a RT-PCR negative report obtained within 72 hours of entry, from April 16 onwards. The high load states are Punjab, Delhi, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. During the meeting with elected representatives of PRIs, Thakur asked them to play a pro-active role in helping the State Government in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic in their respective areas.