Coronavirus: Punjab recorded 22 deaths from COVID-19 and 614 new infections in the past 24 hours.
New Delhi:
Amid the grim Covid situation in Delhi and its neighboring districts, and a second wave arrests in Punjab, Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Wednesday ordered a series of new restrictions, including a nightly curfew. He has also told private hospitals to take stock of the availability of beds amid the influx of patients from Delhi, and immediately appoint more doctors and nurses to meet future needs.
Punjab has reimposed a night curfew between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. in all its cities and towns as of December 1. “Hotels, restaurants and places to get married will close at 9:30 pm,” Singh said.
With this, Punjab has become the sixth state to impose a night curfew due to a new spike in infection after Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.
The fine for not wearing masks and social distancing in public places has also doubled to 1,000 rupees, a government spokesperson said after a high-level state Covid review meeting.
All curbs would be checked on December 15th.
In view of the “influx of patients from Delhi for treatment,” Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan has been instructed to work to optimize the availability of beds, including those with oxygen and in ICU, in private hospitals, a statement read. official. The state has also asked more private hospitals to allocate beds for Covid care.
The emergency appointment of specialists, superspecialists, nurses and paramedics was ordered, in addition to the recent hiring of 249 doctors and 407 doctors.
As a backup workforce, the Department of Health and Medical Education has been told to consider preparing MBBS fourth and fifth year students.
Punjab registered 614 new cases with 22 deaths; Its capital, Chandigarh, which it shares with Haryana, saw 79 more infections and 2 deaths. Overall, Punjab has a total of about 1.5 lakh cases, with at least 4,600 deaths.
Although Punjab ranks well in case reporting and testing, including heavy use of the most reliable RT-PCR tests, its neighboring states of Haryana and Delhi remain of concern.
While Delhi is in the midst of a severe third wave that has seen high mortality among COVID-19 patients, Haryana’s daily case count has at least doubled from the previous 1,000 cases since Diwali.
All district hospitals have been told to make Covid testing a 24×7 facility, as the Chief Minister of Punjab ordered such facilities to be set up in “other convenient locations as well,” in addition to full utilization of the capacity of 25,500 daily RT-PCR test.
Punjab has also hired an agency to track Covid patients in home isolation to avoid deaths.
Punjab has a Covid death rate of 3.2%, almost double the national rate of around 1.5%.
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