All arrangements in place to tackle second wave of Covid: Soni

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, December 3

Medical Education and Research Minister Om Prakash Soni chaired a meet at Government Medical College on Thursday to review the efforts being made to contain the spread of the Covid-19 before the second wave hits.

The meeting was attended by Amritsar Deputy Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Khaira, Commissioner of Police Dr Sukhchain Singh Gill and senior officials of health and civil administration.

Soni claimed all arrangements were in place and asked the Civil Surgeon to increase the capacity of Covid-19 tests and ensure that around 3,000 tests were done daily.

Soni said 20,000 masks would be distributed to the general public with the help of the police to prevent the spread of the virus. He directed senior doctors to visit the Covid wards to check health of patients so that mortality rate could be reduced.

The minister said 26,500 tests were being conducted daily in the state. He said Punjab was conducting more tests in comparison to other states. Soni added that work on cancer institute being set up in the city was 70 per cent complete and remaining work would be completed within six months.

He said initially, three medical colleges in state had 1,100 beds and 226 ICU beds, which has now increased to 1,494 beds and 399 ICU beds.

Talking about dengue, Soni said so far 584 dengue tests had been conducted in the district, out of which 364 persons were found positive and one suspected death had been reported. He said the Health Department had also carried out continuous fogging to control dengue and 450 challans had been issued so far.

Three succumb, 63 new +ve cases

• With three deaths in the district due to the Covid-19, the toll has reached 509. The deceased have been identified as Harjinder Singh (22), from Verka village, Palwinder Singh (40), from Subhash Colony, and Om Parkash (45), of Sundar Nagar.
• The district health authorities reported 63 new positive cases with which the total count reached 13,280. The new cases include 34 influenza like illness cases and 29 contacts of positive patients.
• Meanwhile, with recovery of 51 patients, the recovery count has increased to 12,061. At present, the district has a total of 710 active cases.