Around 69 lakh people of Himachal Pradesh will be screened for COVID-19.
For this, the State Government has launched door-to-door ‘Him Suraksha Abhiyan’ to detect COVID-19 cases and prepare a list of people with other ailments in the state. The campaign will be held from November 25 to December 27 throughout the state.
About 8000 teams comprising Health, Ayurveda, Women and Child Development, Panchayati Raj Departments, District Administration and NGOs would be involved in this campaign which would ensure door to door data collection of health parameters of the people.
The Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, who launched the campaign, said that not only symptomatic patients with probable Covid-19 would be detected through this campaign but patients with other ailments would also be listed through the campaign.
The teams will sensitize the people regarding COVID-19 pandemic and collect information regarding symptoms of diseases like TB, Leprosy, sugar, blood pressure etc. by door to door campaign in the state, he said.
Thakur urged the people of the state to provide wholehearted support to the health workers by providing them accurate information about their diseases and health parameters.
He said that this would help in providing them better health services. The state has already been ranked as the best state in the country in effective implementation of TB eradication programme for the year 2019, he added.
The Chief Minister said that although the number of COVID-19 patients and deaths has witnessed a sharp spike during the last about one month, the situation is still under control.
There is no dearth of essential medicines and equipment like oxygen cylinders and isolation beds in the state.
The main reason for this increase in number could be attributed to social functions and a bit of laxity by the general public, he said.
He also urged the people of the state to use face masks in public places and maintain social distancing to keep them away from this virus.
Highlighting the restrictions put by the State Government to stem the spread of the virus, the Chief Minister said that the State Government had decided to impose night curfew from 8 pm to 6 am in Shimla, Mandi, Kangra and Kullu districts from November 24 to December 15.
This had been done to discourage large number of indoor gatherings in social functions like marriages etc, he said.
He further said that the State Government has also decided to restrict attendance of Class-III and IV government employees to 50 percent. 50 percent employees would attend office for three days and remaining 50 per cent for next three days till December 31. The government has also decided to close all government educational institutions till December 31.
All social, political, cultural, sports etc. gatherings in open areas have also been restricted to 200 persons with social distancing. Fine of Rs 1000 will be imposed for not wearing a face mask in public places, he added.
The state has till now recorded more than 35000 positive cases and more than 560 fatalities.
