With a large set of new relaxations coming into force from Tuesday, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh has directed the State Police to ensure strict compliance with Covid-19 safety protocols, including social distancing and wearing of masks.
“The next 25-30 days would be extremely crucial for containing the spread of the coronavirus in view of sudden opening up of the economy, as well as office or commercial activity, after a 55-day curfew,” warned the Chief Minister.
The Chief Minister directed the Punjab Police to continue with their hard work and commitment to maintain high levels of adherence to protocols and restrictions that had helped the State keep the spread of the pandemic under check.
“We cannot let all benefits of all the work done by you in the past 55 days, and sacrifices made by the people of Punjab, go waste due to any complacency on our part now,” he asserted.
It may be recalled that the Chief Minister had last week announced lifting of the curfew with effect from May 18, but the continuation of lockdown in the State till May 30. In line with the guidelines issued by the Centre, the State has also allowed a host of relaxations in the non-containment zones, with local buses also starting to ply, in a phased manner, from Tuesday (May 19).
Acting on the directives of the Chief Minister, the state DGP Dinkar Gupta has asked all Commissioners of Police and Senior Superintendents of Police across the State to register FIRs and impound vehicles, or issue challans, in case of any violation of the lockdown restrictions.
“We should send a strong message to enforce the various restrictions stringently,” the DGP told his officers, citing the Chief Minister’s instructions.
All SSPs and CPs have been asked to ensure compulsory wearing of masks by everyone stepping out of their homes, without fail, said the DGP.
They have been directed to enforce strict social distancing not just at shops, offices, banks and liquor outlets (thekas), but also in vehicles (car, scooters or motorbikes), as well as public or private transport buses.
Under the new relaxed guidelines, these vehicles can ply within the State, except in the containment zones, but subject to strict protocols.
Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh has also ordered strict enforcement of the night curfew, which bars people from moving out, except for medical or essential needs, between 7 pm and 7 am, in accordance with the Centre’s guidelines for Lockdown 4.0.
The relaxations have been provided to the people for their ease and convenience as they had suffered immense hardships during the curfew period, said Chief Minister Capt Amarinder, but made it clear that no deviation from protocols and restrictions would be tolerated.
PUNJAB LEADS INDIA WITH 78 PER CENT RECOVERY RATE, SAYS HEALTH MINISTER
Punjab on Tuesday claimed to become the leading state in the country to battle coronavirus by achieving 78 percent recovery rate of Covid-19 patients.
“Capt Amarinder Singh led Punjab Government is well prepared to battle the coronavirus pandemic under which 1,57,13,789 persons have been screened by teams of Health Department in the month of April 2020,” said the state Health and Family Welfare Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu.
Sidhu said that Out of these, 9,593 were found to have symptoms and referred for further management and sampling. “There have been 1980 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the State so far, and 52,955 persons have been tested out of which 48,813 are found negative. Out of 1980 Covid-19 patients, 1,557 cases are cured which is among highest recovery rate in India,” said Sidhu.
The Minister said that ‘Risk Stratified Random Sampling’ needs to be done — of frequent travellers, frontline workers, people with co-morbidity and people living in densely populated areas etc — across the State and focus would be kept on high risk areas and high risk individuals to further prevent the spread of corona virus, and instructions have been issued to the Civil Surgeons in this regard.
Revealing about the facts of containment zone, Sidhu said that the State Government has defined only the containment zone and now there will be no red, orange or green zones.
“Containment zone is an area around epicenter of 15 cases or more in a village or ward. It can also be a small group of adjacent villages or wards. Then there should be a buffer zone which will be a concentric area around containment zone and the radius of buffer zone may be up to one km,” he added.
He said that period of containment would be of minimum 14 days. “If in last week, there is no new case or one new case, it shall be opened. Otherwise, period of containment would be extended by one week at a time.
The Health Minister said that out of 4218 Nanded returnees, 1252 turned out to be positive for coronavirus. All of them have been declared cured and sent to their homes, he said adding that majority of cases in Punjab are from outside.