Putting an end to ongoing rumours of a lockdown, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal on Tuesday said that despite getting lockdown suggestions, no lockdown would be imposed in the state, though there would be strict compliance of Covid-19 guidelines so as to ensure containment of the virus. The Chief Minister urged labourers and workers to keep doing their work, relax and not panic. He said that adequate arrangements have been made to ensure that no labourer and worker faces any problem. The state government is standing with every worker working in the state, said the Chief Minister.
“Last year, many labourers had faced problems due to the lockdown, but this time, keeping the interest of the labourers and workers, especially those working on daily and monthly wages, no lockdown would be imposed in Haryana,” the Chief Minister said. He was interacting with people of the state on Tuesday during the “Haryana ki Baat” programme held through live telecast. During the programme, Manohar Lal assured the people of the state that Haryana is ready to tackle any situation expected to arise due to the current Covid-19 surge. “To ensure adequate medical arrangement for Covid-19 patients, the state government has recently held discussions with DRDO officials for setting up a 500-1,000 bed dedicated Covid hospital in Panipat,” Manohar Lal said.
The CM added that the state is going through a difficult phase once again. There is a steady increase in Covid-19 cases, which is a serious matter of concern. In the last one-and-a-half months, the number of new infection cases has reached about 7,000 in one day.
“To deal with this emergent situation, a state-level Covid Monitoring Committee has been constituted under the chairmanship of Health Minister Anil Vij,” he said, adding that the said committee is constantly monitoring the status of infection spread in the state. Adequate amounts of oxygen supply, ICU beds, ventilators, masks and PPE kits etc have been arranged in every hospital across the state. Manohar Lal said that there is no shortage of oxygen supply in hospitals right now. Liquid oxygen is being produced in the oxygen plant at Panipat. Simultaneously, efforts are being made to ensure the availability of oxygen in gas form.
The Chief Minister appealed that those having mild and moderate Covid symptoms should opt for home isolation. He said that for those patients who do not have home isolation arrangements, 526 district Covid centers have been set up across the state. An arrangement of about 45,000 beds has been made in these centres, he added. He further informed that there are about 281 dedicated Covid hospitals in the state having a bed capacity of 21,000. The Chief Minister said that private hospitals have also been requested to give first priority to those who test Covid-19 positive. He said that in the private hospitals, the cost of treatment for Covid-19 has been fixed from Rs 8,000 to 18,000 per day.
The Chief Minister said that now, the number of tests in the state has been increased to about 40,000 tests per day. Apart from this, on a daily basis, Covid-19 vaccine is being administered to more than 70,000 people in the state. About 33 lakh people have been vaccinated so far. He said that from April 20 till the next five days, a mega vaccination drive would be run across the state in which maximum administration of vaccination would be ensured to eligible beneficiaries. The Chief Minister also thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to start the vaccination drive for all those above 18 years, from 1 May.