Haryana Chief Secretary Keshni Anand Arora on Sunday directed all Deputy Commissioners of the state to prepare and implement plans at the micro-level in order to prevent the outbreak of COVID-19 in their respective districts.

Special care should be taken of respiratory patients and if they have any problem, then they should be admitted to the hospital for their treatment, she said while holding a video conferencing of the Crisis Coordination Committee of nodal officers appointed for COVID-19, including District Deputy Commissioners.

She said that apart from two government testing laboratories of the state, five other private testing laboratories of Gurugram have also been authorized to examine the samples of patients.

She said that the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) has authorized these five private laboratories for testing and collection centers have been set up in each district for these laboratories from where the samples can be brought to the laboratories. Supervisory Officer should be deployed to monitor the data in the laboratories where the testing is being done so that accurate data can be collected, Arora said.

The State Government is considering to convert Panchkula's Civil Hospital, Mulana's Hospital and Agroha's 550-bed Hospital into COVID-19 hospitals, she added.

During the video conferencing, the Chief Secretary told the officers that the State Government has placed orders for taking additional thermal scanners and PPE kits and have about 1.5 lakh N-95 masks.

She directed the officers that smart helplines should also be used so that people do not face problems. Arora also directed to implement all measures to prevent COVID-19 in Nuh and said that the suspected COVID-19 people should be quarantined.

 She said that the list of rates of goods with the hawkers and shopkeepers should be confirmed.

During the meeting, Additional Chief Secretary, Health and Family Welfare Department, Rajeev Arora informed that at present, Gurugram is carrying out the maximum laboratory tests of 400 persons per million, which will be increased to 1,000 persons per million in the coming days. Similarly, Nuh and Palwal have the capacity of testing 300 persons per million which will also be increased by the ratio of 500 persons per million.

At the same time, in Faridabad and Panipat, the facility of testing will be provided at the ratio of 1,000 persons per million. At present, COVID-19 testing is being conducted at PGIMS, Rohtak and Bhagat Phool Singh Government Medical College, Khanpur Kalan, and two private testing laboratories of Gurugram have also been added since Saturday, he informed.

He also informed that the State Government is also in talks with a testing laboratory in Mohali and a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will be signed with it soon so that the testing of COVID-19 patients of the state can be done as much as possible.

He said that if a person tests for COVID-19 in the private laboratories, his information should be updated with the concerned civil surgeon and his data should be collected.

If a person gets his testing done under Ayushman Bharat scheme then the testing charges will be refunded, he added.