Ashok Verma
MANSA, June 07, 2020: Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Sunday, responding to the query of Mansa resident on the roadmap to deal with Corona epidemic said that Punjab has adequate essential equipment to manage any further spread of the pandemic but did not wish the stocks to be pulled out of storage for use as his entire focus was on saving lives.
Captain Amarinder Singh was jointly answering to the queries raised by Mansa resident Bikramjit Singh Behla besides Gurleen Kaur of Ludhiana and Sanjay Sharma of Bathinda during his latest FB Live edition of #AskCaptain. Bikram had raised a concern that what are the arrangements in Punjab if Corona pandemic spreads in the state.
Defining the present situation in Punjab, Captain Amarinder Singh said that Punjab’s situation has been under control as of total 1.13 lakh samples taken only 2461 had found Corona positive in Punjab of which 2070 people have been recovered and sent to the home. He said as of June 5, only 438 persons had to be put in isolation, with just three persons having to be placed on Oxygen and another three on a ventilator since the outbreak of the pandemic in the state. He said 48 people had died of the infection.
Despite this, however, the state government was not taking any chances, said Captain Amarinder. In the first stage, 4248 beds in government hospitals had been set aside, with another 2014 now being added, while the private hospitals had allocated 950 beds for Covid patients, he disclosed. The total number of isolation centres identified to accommodate a large number of cases if the crisis aggravates stands at 52 government and 195 private, he added.
Of the 554 ventilators available, only one was in use, as of Saturday, said the Chief Minister, adding that in addition to the equipment already handed over to hospitals and other frontline workers, the Health Department had stocks of 488000 N95 masks, 64 lakh triple layer masks, 228000 PPE kits and 2223 oxygen cylinders.
“With Waheguru’s blessings the Punjab state is under control and we are not leaving any stone unturned prevent the spread of Coronavirus in the state,” Captain Amarinder Singh said.
He said that the Punjab Government under Mission Fateh is focusing on saving the lives and appealed the public to strictly adhere to the safety norms including maintaining social distance, wear face masks and don’t spit.
Meanwhile, Captain Amarinder Singh asked people to feel free to write to him for any kind of concern and he will answer their queries during the #AskCaptain session.