As the Covid-19 cases and related deaths hit the high spot each passing day with Punjab registering another 1000-plus figure and 17 casualties on Sunday, the Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan on Sunday held a high level meeting with the experts to tackle the “second Covid-19 wave”.
Mahajan, chairing a virtual meeting of the State Health Response and Procurement Committee of the Departments of Health, Medical Education, and School Education, reviewed and discussed with experts the possible steps to effectively tackle the spread during the second wave.
Central Government’s Joint Secretary Dr Mandeep Bhandari, who had recently visited Punjab as head of the Central team along with Dr Lakshmi from PGIMER, shared their observations that the COVID spread in Punjab is not just specific to schools alone as other places are also affected and the primary reason for surge in cases in the State is because people are not following COVID Appropriate Behaviors and not religiously abiding the COVID safety protocols.
The state Principal Secretary (Medical Education) DK Tewari informed that in Medical Colleges, students are getting tested every 15 days and no positivity has been found yet.
He also confirmed that all Government Labs are functional for RTPCR testing with a combined capacity of more than 30,000 tests per day.
The Chief Secretary directed the Health and Medical Education Departments to strengthen their treatment facilities to deal with second wave and fill their remaining vacancies on priority.
Mahjan said that the Government is keeping a close watch and depending upon the situation, the decision to reduce occupancy or closure of restaurants, malls and cinema houses will be taken in coming days.
Principal Secretary (Health and Family Welfare) Hussan Lal said that the number of vaccination sites would be extended to District Hospitals, Sub-Divisional Hospitals, and Community Health Centres to facilitate vaccination of eligible general population.
Punjab reports 1051 infections, 17 deaths
Punjab is reporting 895 new infections and 13-14 deaths every day, on an average, in the first week of March. The state has crossed the 1000-plus figure thrice in a week’s time, while the fatalities continued to remain in double-digit.
On Sunday also, the State reported 17 fatalities and 1051 fresh cases, taking the state’s death toll to 5,927 — at a case fatality rate (CFR) of 3.15 percent, and COVID-19 tally to 1,88,391 — at a daily positivity rate of 3.30 percent.
Six deaths were reported from Nawanshahr, followed by five from Jalandhar, two each from Mohali and Muktsar, while one each from Gurdaspur and Patiala.
Among the fresh cases, the highest 157 were registered in Nawanshahr, followed by 131 in Jalandhar, 117 in Kapurthala, 108 in Ludhiana, 102 in Amritsar 96 in Patiala, 84 in Patiala, 76 in Gurdaspur, among others.
The state now has 7497 active cases — accounting 3.98 percent of the state’s total positive cases. Of them, 10 patients are on oxygen support, while 14 are critical and on ventilator support.
As many as 693 patients were discharged on Sunday after recovering from the virus, taking the total number of recoveries to 1,74,967 — at a recovery rate of 92.87 percent.