Himachal Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Saturday said the State Government has imposed complete ban on sale and distribution of chewing gum, bubble gum and such type of other products in the State for three months.
Thakur held a video conference with all the Deputy Commissioners, Superintendents of Police and Chief Medical Officers of the state from Shimla to take stock of the situation due to outbreak of Coronavirus epidemic.
He said that under the Active Case Finding Campaign launched throughout the state, health information of 5.5 lakh persons were procured by the health workers during door to door campaign. He said adequate arrangements should be made for providing surgical masks, hand sanitizers and gloves to the health workers working under Active Case Finding Campaign.
The Chief Minister asked the Deputy Commissioners to make the home delivery system for providing essential commodities to people more effective, as this would help in ensuring proper distancing. He said that in rural areas also volunteers and PRI representatives could be involved to provide home delivery of essential commodities to the people at village level so that unnecessary crowding in PDS shops could be avoided.
Thakur urged the people of the state to emulate the appeal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to switch off the lights in their homes from 9 pm to 9.09 pm on Sunday and light diyas and torches in their balconies. He said this appeal will not be applicable for lights in hospitals and all other essential services like public utilities municipal services, offices, street lights, police stations, manufacturing facilities etc. He said there is no call to switch off either street light or appliances like computers TVs, fans, refrigerators and ACs in the homes.
Thakur directed the officers to keep strict surveillance on persons of Nizamudin Tabligi Jamat of Delhi. He said that focus must be that persons with any travel history are identified at the earliest so that coronavirus does not spread to others. He said that they should be kept in home quarantine or isolation.
He said that Himachal Pradesh has already taken all issues regarding all protocols for grid safety to tackle the likely reduction in demand and surge in voltage during the event.
Thakur said 4286 persons had been kept under surveillance for coronavirus in the state so far, out of which 1754 people had completed 28 days of surveillance period. He said that investigations of 88 persons for COVID-19 had been done on Saturday out of which 33 samples from Tanda Medical College had been collected and 55 samples were collected in IGMC Shimla and report is awaited. He said that 381 persons had so far been investigated in the state for coronavirus and total six cases had been found positive till now.
Director General of Police S.R. Mardi said that FIR must register against the persons who concealing information regarding their travelling history under Disaster Management Act. Additional Chief Secretary Health R.D. Dhiman said that 29 new medical officers have also been appointed.