Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, October 15
With Covid cases showing a marked decline in the state, Punjab’s Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Thursday ordered the resumption of normal OPD service and elective surgeries, with extensive precautions, but cautioned against any complacency given the projections. of a possible second wave pandemic.
The Chief Minister has also allowed the opening of public schools as of Monday, October 19, after proper sanitation and disinfection procedures, and with clear standard operating procedures requiring parental consent, as well as a maximum limit on the number of students and hours of operation.
Some of the state’s private schools have opened today.
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Expressing concern over warnings from health and medical experts about the serious possibility of the second wave hitting the state in the festival season or during the winter months, the Chief Minister directed the departments involved to take all measures to ensure that things remain under control in the holiday times ahead. He asked the Health and Medical Education departments to work with the market committees to ensure the widespread distribution of masks with steps to encourage people to wear them and also follow social distancing rules.
The Chief Minister, who was chairing a virtual Covid situation review meeting, also asked departments to ensure that medical staff stay motivated and that all technician vacancies etc. are filled immediately so that Normal OPD services and elective surgeries can be carried out without problems in the middle of the pandemic situation.
The secretaries of the Departments of Health and Medical Research briefed the Chief Minister on the measures being taken to ensure full precautions in OPDs, wards and operating rooms in accordance with the SoPs and guidelines for the prevention and control of infections
DGP Dinkar Gupta said at the meeting that the Punjab Police were preparing to manage the festival season, during which security would be strengthened and every effort would be made to ensure strict compliance with Covid regulations in the markets, Ramlilas, etc. The police were also currently focused on handling the growing number of farmer protests, as well as the BJP and RSS pickets.
According to the DGP, the force had lost 22 troops to Covid in September, bringing the number of victims to 39. To date, 434 policemen have tested positive, with an average of 72 cases reported among the Punjab Police every day. during September. However, the figure has now dropped to around 10.
Even when calling the decline in the positivity rate to 2.60 as a good sign, Dr. KK Talwar, head of the state government’s advisory committee of health experts, warned of a second wave that will hit Punjab during festival season. . With nearly 500 cases a day currently, the projections for the next few days were positive, he said, but added that with the onslaught of festivals to come and fatigue in the health system, Punjab could see the next wave hit soon.
Citing the incidence of the second wave in various countries, and even in Delhi, Dr. Talwar said that Punjab should learn lessons from its experience and prepare accordingly. Dr. Rajesh Kumar, a member of the Health Department’s Covid expert group, said that even if the situation were kept under control until November, the start of the winter season could trigger an outbreak in the cases.
Dr. Talwar suggested giving Asha workers pulse oximeters so that they can keep a check on their respective areas. He added that teams of experts are being formed to conduct a mortality audit of each hospital to identify gaps, since the fatality rate in the state remains high (3.1%). This despite the fact that the recovery rate has gone from 82% on October 1 to 90.3% on October 13, when the total number of confirmed cases in the state was 1,23,211.
The Secretary of Health, Hussan Lal, pointed out that the Fatal Case Rate (CFR) was still high at 131 compared to the national average of 81. He added that to ensure adequate availability of oxygen supply in the coming weeks and months, tender for the first phase to increase supply was in process. The Indian government had set rates for medical oxygen, including for oxygen cylinder transportation, although rates for liquid oxygen transportation had not yet been set, he added.
