Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 30

Punjab Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan on Monday said the state government had made all necessary arrangements to prevent possible second wave of Covid-10. She also urged the people to follow the safety norms strictly and said “Mask hi vaccine hai” was the mantra to defeat the pandemic till the time a vaccine was available.

Presiding over a review meeting of the State Covid-19 Management Group, the Chief Secretary directed the departments concerned to enhance the number of Covid tests to 30,000 per day so that the infected persons could be identified and treated at the earliest. She also instructed to further increase the number of oxygen and ICU beds in medical colleges and district hospitals of the state. Notably, there already are sufficient numbers of beds available and the state is adequately prepared for any surge in the number of cases.

An official spokesperson said there were total 1,236 beds at Government Medical College, Amritsar, 1,450 beds at Government Medical College, Patiala, and 1,025 beds at Government Medical College, Faridkot. There are 450, 600 and 301 oxygen beds available at Amritsar, Patiala and Faridkot respectively. The number of ICU beds in Amritsar and Faridkot are 92 each and 88 in Patiala. Similarly, there are 87 ventilator beds in Amritsar, 67 in Patiala and 71 in Faridkot.

The Chief Secretary stated that there would be no shortage of funds to provide the best health services to the people of the state. She also urged the private hospitals to come forward to partner with the state in the fight against the pandemic. She instructed the officials to use data and analytics as evidence for decision making such that the measures are timely and best suited to the scenario.