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Punjab Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan chaired a virtual meeting Sunday with the State Health Response and Procurement Committee of the departments of health, medical education and school education.
During the meeting, she reviewed and discussed with experts the possible steps to effectively tackle the spread of COVID-19 during the second wave.
Dr Mandeep Bhandari, joint secretary to government of India, 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 behaviour and not religiously abiding by the COVID safety protocols.
Principal Secretary Medical Education D K Tewari said that in medical colleges, students are getting tested every 15 days and no positivity has been found yet. He confirmed that all government labs are functional for RT-PCR 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 the second wave and fill their remaining vacancies on priority.
Mahjan said that the government was 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 the coming days.
Principal Secretary Health and Family Welfare Hussan Lal stated 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.
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