New Year: Chandigarh not to impose curbs

The administration has stated that Chandigarh’s positivity rate is 1 per cent or less and the Centre has advised curbs in states which have a 10 per cent positivity rate. When contacted, Chandigarh Adviser Dharam Pal, “In fact we have thought that even though government has advised curbs post 10 in per cent positivity rate, Chandigarh will start imposing checks when the positivity rate reaches 5 per cent. As of now the cases are manageable. They are around 1 per cent or sometimes less.”

When asked about any curbs or checks on the New Year’s Eve, the Adviser said, “As the cases are manageable, we aren’t imposing any curbs as of now. Because we have to see the economic impact as well and at the same time, the positivity rate is just 1 percent or lower.” However, the Adviser said that post January 1, challans drives against those not fully vaccinated will begin. “Hotels and restaurants can deny services to them if the persons are not vaccinated. We are beginning challans from January 1 onwards,” Pal said.

Vaccine registration for children to begin from Jan 1
Registration on the CoWIN portal for children will be available from 1 January, 2022 and vaccination will start from January 3, 2022. As per the eligible population projected by the Central government, there are about 72,000 eligible children within the particular age band. Separate vaccination centers will provided for children. Dedicated vaccination centers will be provided at health facilities and the slots for vaccination can be booked through Co-WIN portal. The schools will open on January 10, 2022 after winter vacations.

A special vaccination center exclusively for eligible girl children, will be set up at Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Sector 20B, Chandigarh. “The Director School Education may chalk out a schedule for holding vaccination camps in each of the school where students eligible for vaccination are enrolled. Parents may also be allowed to accompany them on the date of vaccination,” the Health Secretary said. There will not be door-step vaccination for children. Preference will be given to slot booked online, but subject to availability of vacant slots, walk-in registrations will also be allowed.

PGIMER, Sector 12, Chandigarh
GMCH, Sector 32, Chandigarh
GMSH Sector 16, Chandigarh
Civil Hospital, Manimajra, Chandigarh
Civil Hospital, Sector 22, Chandigarh
Civil Hospital, Sector 45, Chandigarh

Special vaccination centers will be setup at the following schools which will be functional from January 3, 2022 where walk-in registration will be allowed to the eligible children (whether enrolled or not in any particular school):

Government Senior Secondary School, Dhanas
Government Model High School, RC-I1, Maloya
Government Model Senior Secondary School, MHC, Mani Majra

This apart, a precaution dose to all health care and front line workers and those above 60 years of age will be administered from January 10. Chandigarh has a comorbid population of 15,600 of those above 60. Arrangements for the dose will be finalised after getting guidelines from the Central government. However, the District Immunization Officer (DIO) said that about 1,32,000 doses of Covishield vaccine are available in stock and 93,000 more are expected. The DIO also said that 93,000 doses of Covaxin are also expected and the same will be available for vaccination of children.

About 17,000 doses of Covishield are available with private health facilities in the city. “Considering the slow pace of vaccination, it is unlikely that these can be utilised by private health facilities before its expires in next three to four months. To avoid any wastage of the precious vaccine, we may consider replacing these vaccines with the fresh stock available and, thereafter, the doses nearer to expiry dates will be utilised on priority,” he further stated.

Panchkula: 89 challans issued against those not wearing masks
While 89 challans were issued on Wednesday, almost 500 have been issued in the past six days against those persons found without a mask. The DCP office of Panchkula, seeing a rise in Covid cases last week, had issued an alert asking people to mask up. The DCP had also stated that the challaning drive will resume and anybody spotted without masks would be taken strict action against. Panchkula DCP Mohit Handa, has taken cognizance of the continued violation of Covid-19 guidelines has instructed all Station House Officers as well as police-post incharges to resume the challaning drive.

Apart from this, shopkeepers, showrooms, etc., have already been asked to ensure that the customers at their shops follow Covid-19 rules, such as marking the front of the shop under social distancing norms and following a no-service policy for those without masks. The police have been directed to patrol the area under their control, paying special attention to markets, bus stands, taxi stands and other crowded areas.

No Omicron variant found in reports of contacts of Italian residentThe Whole Genome Sequencing results of samples of the remaining three contacts of Omicron positive Italian residents, were received today by the Health Department. No Variant of Concern (VoC) or mutation of interest was found in the three samples of family contacts.