BREAKING NEWS: CHANDIGARH WAR ROOM ANNOUNCES MODIFICATIONS IN COVID-19 RESTRICTIONS
THE VOICE OF CHANDIGARH NEWS:
Hon’ble Governor of Punjab and Administrator, UT Chandigarh VP Singh Badnore today presided over War Room meeting. The meeting was attended by Sh. Dharam Pal, Adviser to the Administrator, UT, Chandigarh, Sh. Arun Kumar Gupta, Principal Secretary Home, Sh. Sanjay Baniwal, Director General of Police and Sh. Vijay Namdeorao Zade, Finance Secretary at Punjab Raj Bhawan. Sh. Kamal Kishor Yadav, Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, Sh. Yashpal Garg, CEO, Chandigarh Housing Board, Sh. Vinod P. Kavle, Secretary IT, Sh. SS Gill, Secretary Education and Deputy Commissioners of Panchkula & Mohali, Director, PGIMER, Director Principal, GMCH-32 & Director Health Services, GMSH-16 attended through Video Conferencing.
WAR ROOM DIRECTIONS
Dr. G. D. Puri of PGIMER stated that they have 45 covid cases in PGIMER. He also mentioned that they have tested 1295 samples and the positivity rate was 1.62%. However, it was only 0.23% for Chandigarh. He also mentioned that almost all the OPDs have opened up in the PGI. He further stated that they are doing about 100 surgeries daily and currently have about 1,500 patients admitted indoor. There are more than 200 patients in emergency which is almost full. More than 1,500 beds out of 2,200 beds available in PGI are occupied by non-covid patients. Out of 357 cases of mucormycosis, who come for treatment, 38 deaths have taken place with fatality rate of 10.5%. He also informed that sero-survey for paediatric cases of 6-18 years age group indicate that there are 62% children in sector areas, 72% in rural and colony areas have antibodies.
Dr. Puri further informed that 2 oxygen plants each of 1000 Litre Per Minute (LPM) capacity have been commissioned in the PGIMER.
Administrator advised PGIMER to start the genome sequencing lab at the earliest.
Dr. Jasbinder Kaur, Director Principal, GMCH-32 stated that they have tested 5,595 covid samples and the positivity rate was found to be 0.2%. The positivity rate of RT-PCR tests was 0.3% but zero percent in case of RAT tests. She also mentioned that there are 19 active cases of Mucormycosis (Black fungus), out of which 03 are also suffering from corona, 7 are post-covid and 9 are non-covid. She apprised that all Operation Theatres in GMCH 32 have been re-started.
Dr. Amandeep Kang, Director Health Services, GMSH-16 stated that 11,390 covid samples have been tested for the city during last week and the positivity rate was 0.5% with overall recovery rate of 98.4% in the city. She mentioned that 6,20,721 doses of vaccines have been administered in Chandigarh so far. 71% of the eligible population has been given 1st dose and 17% are fully vaccinated. Currently, about 55,000 doses are available in Govt. Hospitals and 45,000 in Private Hospitals. Further, about 75,000 doses of vaccines have been allocated by Government of India for the remaining period of July, 2021 and will be received shortly.
She also highlighted that enough doses of Pneumococcal vaccine have been received from Government of India for immunization of children upto 1 year of age and will be starting the drive from 16th of July, 2021 in all government hospitals and Health & Wellness Centres free of cost. Health department is going to start door-to-door survey-cum-drive in Dadu Majra and Manimajra for encouraging the vaccination of left out eligible population with the help of municipal councillors of these areas.
The Administrator appreciated the efforts of the Health Department for carrying out the vaccination drive in the city in the past few days. He further advised the hospitals to upgrade the health infrastructure for paediatrics cases and ensure that separate facilities fully equipped with paediatric ventilators etc. are created.
Deputy Commissioner, Mohali stated that they have 87 active cases and 60.3% and 9.6% of eligible population has been given 1st dose and 2nd dose respectively. Deputy Commissioner, Panchkula stated that they have 20 active cases and Panchkula has covered 65% and 20% of eligible population with 1st and 2nd dose respectively. Deputy Commissioner, UT, Chandigarh stated that they have 93 active cases.
Hon’ble Governor of Punjab and Administrator, UT appealed to the Corporate Sector to come forward for the purchase of vaccine from private hospitals on cost-to-cost basis, out of CSR funds and donate the same to the government hospitals for further administering to the general public free of cost.
Kamal Kishor Yadav, Commissioner, Municipal Corporation stated that road gullies have been cleared and 18 teams have been deputed to tackle temporary flooding of the city during heavy rains. Further, helpline number 0172-2787200 has been set up for complaints’ redressal in this regard.
After detailed discussions in the War Room, the following decisions were taken :-
(i) The schools will start functioning physically from 19th July, 2021 for 9th to 12th classes subject to parents’ consent for sending their wards to the schools. However, the online mode of teaching will continue.
(ii) The coaching institutes will be allowed to function physically from 19th July, 2021 with the condition that all the eligible students and staff are administered at least one dose of vaccine and the covid protocols are strictly followed in the institutes.
(iii) The number of guests for social gathering like wedding would be increased to 200 or 50% capacity of the banquet hall, whichever is less with the condition that all adult guests and staff of the hotels/banquet halls to have received at least one dose of vaccine or to have negative RT-PCR report of last 72 hours.
(iv) Rock Garden and Museums will be opened with covid protocol.
(v) Cinema halls and spas would also be allowed to function with 50% capacity.
