‘Resources in place for rising cases’

CHANDIGARH: Punjab has already made 6,190 beds available at government as well as private hospitals in Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Patiala for Covid-19 patients. In addition, covid care centres have been set up in districts with capacity of 7,000 beds, which can be enhanced to 28,000, if needed.
Punjab’s chief secretary Vini Mahajan said over Rs 300 crore had been spent by the state government on covid care and migrants across the state till date. The state government was well prepared to deal with increasing Covid-19 cases with adequate bed capacity, ventilators in hospitals, PPE kits, masks and testing kits. She urged people not to panic but to strictly adhere to the health and safety protocols, including social distancing, proper wearing of masks and washing hands frequently.
Mahajan said senior officer of civil administrations had been deputed as nodal officers in all 22 districts with senior IAS officers Sumit Jarangal and Tanu Kashyap deputed as state nodal officers to oversee daily number of cases and to ensure availability of the requisite medical infrastructure well in time.
The chief secretary said that the deputy commissioners had also been asked to liaison with private hospitals in respective districts to increase availability of dedicated beds for treatment of Covid-19 patients.