Himachal Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Saturday held a video conference with all the Deputy Commissioners, Superintendents of Police and Chief Medical Officers of the State from Shimla to take stock of the situation in wake of curfew in the State due to outbreak of Corona epidemic.
He directed the officers that it should be ensured that there was no inconvenience to the people and sufficient essential commodities were made available to them during the relaxation period of curfew. He also asked the DCs that proper social distancing must be ensured between person to person during relaxation period of the curfew.
Thakur urged the people of the State to purchase the essential commodities from the shops nearer to their homes by maintaining appropriate social distancing as it was the proper way to break the chain of corona virus. He said that only one person of a family should be allowed during relaxation period of curfew for taking essential commodities.
He directed the Deputy Commissioners to ensure that production in pharma industries was not affected as they were manufacturing several life saving drugs. He also asked the Deputy Commissioners to make adequate arrangements of food and shelter to the vulnerable sections of the society. He said that such people should be provided food and shelter for which school buildings could also be utilized.
Thakur asked all the DCs to ensure that inter and intra State exodus must be completely stopped for atleast 4-5 days because this could prove very counterproductive and defeat the sole purpose of social distancing. He said that instead of this, the deputy commissioners must motivate such people to remain stationed wherever they are and ensure proper arrangement for their food and shelter.
He said there were adequate number of ventilators in all the three medical colleges earmarked for treatment of Covid-19 virus, adding that sufficient number of PPE kits were also available in health institutions of the State.
The Chief Minister said that as many as 2409 people had come from the foreign countries to the State so far out of which 724 people had completed 28 days of surveillance period. He said investigations of 29 persons for COVID-19 had been done today out of which 24 samples from Tanda Medical College were found negative and report of 5 samples collected in IGMC Shimla were also found negative. He said that 179 persons had so far been investigated in the State for corona virus, adding that the COVID-19 positive person admitted in Tanda Medical College was found negative on Saturday.
MOVEMENT OF VEHICLES BRINGING ESSENTIAL ITEMS BEING MONITORED, SAYS CM
Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said that movement of vehicles bringing essential items was being monitored regularly so that common people can get them easily. He said that in the border districts of Bilaspur, Chamba, Kangra, Sirmaur, Solan and Una essential items were supplied.
Thakur said control rooms in the State were monitoring the movement of vehicles round the clock to ensure that there was no dearth of essential items in the state.
He said Deputy Commissioners have been directed to take the help of NGOs and four thousand trained volunteers of disaster management to tackle COVID-19.
Thakur said that there was ample stock of eatables such as wheat, rice, pulses, sugar, edible oils, kerosene, salt etc in the state and directions have been given to the Food and Civil Supplies Corporation to get more stock from other states so that there was no scarcity of these items in future. He urged the people not to do panic purchasing as there was more than adequate stock of essential items in the State.
