Earlier this month, on April 2, the state government had issued an order stating that wearing face masks in public places and workplaces was no longer mandatory and had removed fines for not wearing masks. (File) Haryana Health and Family Welfare Minister Anil Vij on Monday said that in view of the increasing cases of Covid, face masks have been made mandatory in four districts – Gurgaon, Faridabad, Sonepat and Jhajjar – of Haryana adjoining NCR. People not wearing a face mask in public places will be penalised, he said.
Vij said that out of 238 cases of Covid reported in the state on Monday, 198 are from Gurgaon and 22 cases are from Faridabad, while more than half of the districts in Haryana had reported zero cases.
He added that he had sent a team to Gurgaon to find out reasons for a spike in cases in the district. “The report is yet to come. Different teams have been formed to ascertain the areas and clusters from where cases are being reported. Samples have been sent to Rohtak for genome sequencing to ascertain the variant of Covid among the new cases. At present, as a precaution, it has been made mandatory to wear face masks in four districts – Gurgaon, Faridabad, Sonepat and Jhajjar – adjoining Delhi,” he said.
“We are fully prepared and adequate arrangements are being made in terms of manpower, equipment, hospital beds and oxygen. People need to be vigilant and wear masks and use hand sanitisers and maintain social distancing,” he added.
Earlier this month, on April 2, the state government had issued an order stating that wearing face masks in public places and workplaces was no longer mandatory and had removed fines for not wearing masks.
On April 15, the additional chief secretary (ACS) health, Haryana, Rajeev Arora, had held a review meeting with officials of the district health department and district administration. The ACS had directed officials to ramp up testing to over 3,000-3,500 per day and increase coverage of vaccination for children in the age group of 12-14 and those awaiting booster doses.
Gurgaon on Monday reported 198 cases, taking the active cases in the district to 781. Five people have been hospitalised, while 776 are in home isolation, according to data from district health bulletin.
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