In the wake of growing threat due to coronavirus (COVID-19), the Punjab Government on Tuesday ordered the closure of all shopping complexes, malls, museums, theatres and local weekly Kisan Mandis till March 31, besides directing the marriage palaces to restrict their gathering up to 50 persons.
At the same time, the religious institutions and dera heads have also been asked to postpone their congregations.
The series of decisions were taken by the Group of Ministers, a body of seven ministers constituted by the Chief Minister to take stock of the situation arising out of coronavirus scare on day to day basis, on Tuesday in view of the advisory received from the Government of India for checking the spread of COVID-19.
While closing down the malls, shopping complexes, mandis, the Government has made it clear that the chemists and grocery shops in the malls have been exempted from the shutdown.
Similarly, all the local weekly Kisan Mandis (farmers market) in the State have been closed in a bid to restrict people to gather in a large number at one place, but the street hawkers have been allowed to sell vegetables for people’s convenience.
The Group of Minister, taking more stringent steps to prohibit the public gathering, also issued advisory for all the Religious Institutions, Dera Heads to postpone their religious congregations till March 31.
Close on the lines with the advisory issued by the Central Government, the GoM has also decided to restrict the gathering at the marriage function being organized at the marriage palaces. Directions have been issued to the Deputy Commissioners to ensure that the gathering at any function in marriage palaces must not increase beyond 50 persons.
Likewise, DCs will also ensure that all the restaurants, hotels, dhabas and food courts in their respective areas are implementing handwashing protocol and proper cleanliness of frequently touched surfaces besides ensuring physical distancing of one meter between persons and tables.
The GoM has also directed the School Education Department and administrative bodies of other private educational institutes to postpone the examinations.
In case there is a dire need of conducting the examinations, the particular institute, and the school would inform the District Administration and would also ensure that one meter distance is maintained between two students.
The GoM reviewed the present situation in the State and took stock of the availability of prescribed medicines and deployment of medical and paramedical staff at the crucial junctures.
INDUSTRIES ASKED TO ENSURE PROPER HYGIENE PRECAUTIONS FOR WORKERS, REGULAR CHECKUPS, COMMUNITY SANITISATION
Amidst Government’s proactive efforts to mitigate COVID-19 threat, Punjab Industries and Commerce Minister Sunder Sham Arora on Tuesday asked all state industry heads to ensure all precautionary health measures for their workers across the State to complement the Government's efforts to fully contain the spread of highly contagious virus.
All hygiene precautions must be made fully available at all industrial facilities for workers, said Arora asking the industry to also carry out regular check-ups of their workforce at the nearest government dispensary in case of suspicious symptoms to ensure timely detection and cure.
Arora, chairing a meeting of senior department officers and affiliated Boards and Corporations to assess the situation arising out of the coronavirus crisis, asked all industrial units in the State to put up prominent signboards outside their factories listing out hygiene precautions to be taken to prevent the spread of Coronavirus.
He also asked to ensure availability of hand sanitizers to the workers at all strategic points.
Assuring the industry of fulsome support and assistance, the Minister said that state machinery was fully geared up to meet any challenge adding that active participation both at personal and community level was key in the fight to defeat this deadly virus.
He also asked them to make soap and water freely available for use by the workers who enter their factories besides directing for making common facilities used by staff and workers be regularly sanitized, including buses or common transport vehicles used by workers.
INTENSIFY DRIVE TO TACKLE CORONAVIRUS THREAT: JAKHAR TO CAPT
Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar on Tuesday requested the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh's personal intervention to direct the Deputy Commissioners and the administrators of all local bodies to use money from the Disaster Management Fund and Swachh Bharat Mission to ensure cleanliness in their respective segments since it would be difficult to prevent the spread of coronavirus if such steps are not taken.
“The officers, instead of limiting the activity by holding meetings in their offices, should be told to monitor the situation at ground level and ensure the availability of logistics to tackle the threat perception. We need to rise to the expectations of people immediately,” he said in a letter he personally handed over to the Chief Minister on Tuesday.
Jakhar said, while the Government of India had declared COVID-19 as a national calamity and declared that money could be utilized from the Disaster Relief Funds to prevent the outbreak of the pandemic, media reports indicate that “much more needs to be done in Punjab”.
Reminding the Chief Minister of his proactive approach in dealing with the locust swarms invasion in Fazilka district last month, Jakhar said: “I wish the same spirit be shown in letter and spirit in preventing millions of people in Punjab from the threat that coronavirus poses.”
“It has already been highlighted by different media platforms that masks and sanitizers of branded companies are yet to be provided to medicos and field staff in the Health Department that is supposed to launch a decisive awareness drive, substandard material is being marketed across the State as per the media reports,” he said.
Jakhar said: “You might have also gone through the reports that garbage dumps had piled up in some towns and metropolitan cities due to strike by sanitation staff or other reasons. While the experts were putting emphasis on personal hygiene as primary measure to prevent attack by coronavirus, lakhs of people were forced by the situation to pass through dirty water that had accumulated in residential colonies many towns and garbage dumped on roads.”