Strict checking for entrants from Delhi to check Covid-19 spread: Captain Amarinder Singh

CHANDIGARH: Expressing concern about the spread of Covid-19 in the state, Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh on Saturday called for strict checking of people coming from other states, particularly Delhi, where cases are spiralling out of control.
However, he made it clear that Punjabis can get hospital beds reserved in Punjab on the recommendation of a Delhi hospital. The chief minister was responding to a question from a Punjab resident working in Delhi during his Facebook Live #AskCaptain session.
On the issue of sealing borders with other states, Amarinder said while Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh have sealed their borders with Punjab, people from Haryana and Delhi are coming in large numbers every day.
On Friday alone, 6,500 vehicles entered Punjab from Delhi and Haryana, which translated into about 20,000 people coming from these states on a single day, he said.
In view of the increasing number of positive cases in the state, the CM said Punjab government is considering ways of making entry norms more stringent. Of the 2,986 cases reported in Punjab, 1,471 can be traced to outsiders and their contacts, he said.
On 117 cases reported in the state in one day, the chief minister said it was caused by the influx of people into the state, where as many as 43,000 people have come in one month. In addition to people landing in Amritsar from Dubai and other places, trains culminating in the historic city are also adding to the deluge of people, he said, adding that maximum cases were reported from Amritsar, Jalandhar and Ludhiana.
Another reason for more cases being reported is intensified testing, which has gone up from the initial 700 to 11,000, he said. The state government, Amarinder said, is in the process of procuring latest machines to increase the number of tests to 20,000 a day. So far, a total of 1,65,000 tests have been conducted, he said, quoting experts as saying that testing is the only vaccine against Covid-19 at present.
Of the 2,986 positive cases reported, 2,282 have fully recovered, with 532 in isolation facilities and only nine in high dependency units, with two patients on ventilators, he said.
The CM said testing facilities would soon be established in Pathankot and Gurdaspur, so that people from these cities do not have to go to Amritsar to get their tests done. The health department is also in the process of training more medical staff, he added.
In reply to a question, he said he hoped that the situation would not arise wherein the state’s health infrastructure would get overwhelmed. Already, the state government was allowing asymptomatic patients or those will mild symptoms to remain in home isolation, to ensure that there is not major burden on the health system, he pointed out.
Answering a question, Amarinder said all deputy commissioners were being directed to check meat shops to see if any meat was being sold without protocol to avert any virus spread from this source.
Home delivery is allowed for senior citizens during the weekend or gazetted holiday lockdown and DCs were being given instructions on this count, he clarified. There was also no bar on industrial operations, while marriages and funerals/Bhog ceremonies could also be held with the restricted numbers as allowed by central government guidelines.