With COVID-19 cases declining sharply in the city, the Chandigarh Administration on Tuesday announced more relaxations allowing more people at social gatherings, allowing swimming pools to open and withdrawing restrictions at Sukhna Lake.
During a review meeting held under Punjab Governor and UT Administrator VP Singh Badnore, it was decided to allow opening of swimming pools and more people in social gatherings while making it mandatory for attendees to have at least one jab of Covid vaccine.
The Administration decided to open selected swimming pools of the Sports Department for the players. Even among the players only those will be eligible who have been administered at least one dose of vaccine. Such players will have to be tested for Covid after every fortnight, said a senior UT official.
Apart from this, the number of guests allowed for special gatherings like weddings has been increased to 100 or 50 percent capacity of the banquet hall etc., whichever is less. It would be mandatory for all guests and staff of the hotel or banquet hall to have received at least one dose of vaccine or to have a negative RTPCR report of the last 72 hours.
The opening timings for the liquor vends have also been extended by one and half hours. Vends have been clubbed in the category of restaurants, bars and eateries and are allowed to open accordingly. Earlier, vends were considered as shops and were permitted to open till 9 pm. Now, these will be open till 10.30 pm.
During the meeting, discussion was held regarding crowding at Sukhna Lake during weekends.
The restrictions on opening of Sukhna Lake for only four hours in the morning and two hours in the evening on Sundays have been withdrawn. This has been done so that overcrowding during the restricted hours of opening is avoided, the UT official said.
Badnore expressed serious concern about overcrowding at Sukhna Lake and directed the Police authorities to ensure strict enforcement of Covid Appropriate Behaviour at Sukhna Lake and asked officials to take necessary steps to deter the crowding at the lake.
He also directed to consider the closure of Sukhna Lake during evenings of weekend, if the visitors at the Lake do not adhere to Covid protocols and such over-crowding is observed even after opening it for the whole day.
He also asked the MC and UT officials to ensure compliance of his earlier orders of cleaning of road gullies and all choes of the city, as monsoon is expected to arrive shortly.
ELECTIVE SURGERIES BEGIN AT PGIMER
At the meeting, Dr Jagat Ram, Director PGIMER informed that elective surgeries have been started by PGIMER now. He said PGIMER is doing about 140 surgeries daily and currently has about 1,600 patients admitted indoors.
The number of mucormycosis (black fungus) patients being received daily have drastically come down to about 3 to 4 patients per day. The fatality of mucormycosis cases has also come down to 11 percent in PGIMER, he said.
Dr Jagat Ram said that sero-survey for paediatric cases has been started in various parts of the city. Sero Survey in colonies has also been started from Tuesday, he added.
Dr. Jasbinder Kaur, Director Principal, GMCH-32 informed that there are 22 active cases of mucormycosis, out of which 4 are likely to be discharged. She apprised that surgeries have also been started in GMCH-32 and physical OPDs through online appointments have also been started.
Dr. Amandeep Kang, Director Health Services stated that 5,66,601 doses of vaccines have also been administered in Chandigarh so far. Currently 26,199 doses are available and they are going to explore the possibility of starting mobile vaccination by using CTU buses vaccination from next week. A special vaccination camp has been arranged at Sukhna Lake, she added.