Vij, who is recovering from a severe fracture, attended his office after nearly 35 days.
As coronavirus cases continue to rise across the state, Haryana’s Health Minister Anil Vij, who is also Home Minister, on Tuesday gave strong indications of reimposing curfew in districts bordering Delhi and also sealing state borders with the national capital.
With 699 fresh cases and four deaths in the last 24 hours, Haryana’s Covid count reached 22,628 cases and 312 deaths till Tuesday evening. Gurgaon reported 160 fresh cases, Faridabad (115), Sonipat (55) and Jhajjar (26). Two patients died in Gurgaon while one each lost the battle against coronavirus in Rewari and Palwal districts in the last 24 hours.
“Coronavirus is spreading in Haryana’s four districts due to proximity with Delhi. It is not possible to test each and every person coming from Delhi. Thus, curfew is the only solution to prevent further spread of coronavirus in these districts,” Vij said, indicating that the state was heading for imposing another lockdown, especially in four districts of Gurgaon, Faridabad, Sonipat and Jhajjar.
Vij, who is recovering from a severe fracture, attended his office after nearly 35 days. Talking to mediapersons in his office, Vij said, “Coronavirus cases continue to rise in these four districts that share borders with Delhi. Over 80 per cent of Covid cases of the entire state are in these four districts. Thus, we are considering re-imposing curfew in these four districts. We are also considering sealing our borders with Delhi again.”
“Although Punjab has increased the penalty for not wearing face mask to Rs 5,100, the fine in Haryana for not wearing a face mask is Rs 500. We are strictly imposing it so that it serves as a deterrent,” Vij added.
According to the Covid bulletin issued on Tuesday evening, there were 5,226 active Covid patients, out of whom 1,084 were in Gurgaon, 893 in Faridabad, 606 in Sonipat, 413 in Rohtak, and 181 in Jhajjar. There were 81 critical patients out of whom 72 were on oxygen support while nine patients were on ventilator support on Tuesday evening.
Out of 312 deaths in Haryana so far, 179 victims had comorbidities while 133 patients did not have any comorbidity. A total of 453 patients recovered in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of recovered patients in the state to 17,090 and recovery rate to 75.53 per cent. The case doubling rate in Haryana was recorded at 21 days.
Haryana to open youth clubs in each village in 4 years
Haryana Minister of State, Sports and Youth Affairs, Sandeep Singh said, “State government has decided to open a youth club at each village over the next four years to help create social awareness and nurture the spirit of cooperation. With this, Haryana will become the first state in the country to set up a youth club in every village. Apart from this, individual events will be held on August 29, the birth anniversary of Late Major Dhyan Chand, in the state.”
Singh said this after his meeting with Union Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports Kiren Rijiju through video conferencing. Singh also requested the Union government to open more centres of Sports Authority of India and Sports Rehabilitation Centres in Haryana.
“Currently, 336 sports nurseries are being run in the state, where coaching is being given by qualified sportspersons who have achievements at the national level. Children in the age group of 8–14 years and 15–19 years are coached in each nursery. Following the guidelines issued by the Central government during Unlock-1 and 2, eight to 10 players are being trained in the sports complexes of the state. Special attention is being given to social distancing, sanitisation and face masks,” Singh added.