Amid spike in rural areas, Amarinder asks villages to restrict entry to only Covid-free persons

| | Chandigarh
  • 0

Amid spike in rural areas, Amarinder asks villages to restrict entry to only Covid-free persons

Saturday, 15 May 2021 | PNS | Chandigarh

With rural areas, which were largely unaffected in the first wave, now showing a COVID spike, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Friday urged villagers to restrict movement into their villages to only those persons who are free of the virus.

Addressing the people of the state in a live Facebook telecast, the Chief Minister called for strict measures in the rural areas over the next two months, which he described as “extremely crucial”.

“Now the rural areas are seeing a surge in cases, so we need to be very careful,” he said, urging the villagers to conduct ‘thikri pheras’ to keep outsiders away and allow only COVID-free people to enter.

Exhorting people to “save your mohallas and villages to save yourself, your families and Punjab”, the Chief Minister asked them not to delay going to hospitals in time.

“We have teams of doctors everywhere, approach them if you feel unwell,” he urged them, stressing that delay in going for treatment was leading to people ending up in Level-III (L3). While occupancy of Level-II (L2) beds is 50 percent, at the L3 level, around 90 percent of the beds are currently occupied, and the State Government is in the process of adding another 2,000, he pointed out, attributing this to the people not going for treatment in time.

Noting that there are three stages of the disease, of which the first can be managed at home, Capt Amarinder reiterated his plea to the people to go to the doctor at the first sign of symptoms. “Let the doctor decide the course of treatment, don’t get into diagnosis and medication yourself,” he appealed to them.

“I fail to understand why we are harming the interests of the State and your families in this manner,” he said, adding that “we do not want Punjab to go the way of Delhi and Maharashtra, which have experienced unprecedented problems amid the second wave.” The disease was wreaking havoc the world over, with even the most advanced countries not immune to it, he said, urging people to help the Government save the State.

Underlining that the pandemic threat continues and some people are still not taking the pandemic seriously even after 14 months of its outbreak, the Chief Minister said that Punjab has, so far, had 4.75 lakh plus cases, with Thursday’s 24-hour case load at 8,484.

While the total deaths stood at 11,297, the state had lost 184 lives to COVID a day before, he added. As of date, there are 9,619 patients on oxygen and 429 on ventilator support.

Sunday Edition

CAA PASSPORT TO FREEDOM

24 March 2024 | Kumar Chellappan | Agenda

CHENNAI EXPRESS IN GURUGRAM

24 March 2024 | Pawan Soni | Agenda

The Way of Bengal

24 March 2024 | Shobori Ganguli | Agenda

The Pizza Philosopher

24 March 2024 | Shobori Ganguli | Agenda

Astroturf | Lord Shiva calls for all-inclusiveness

24 March 2024 | Bharat Bhushan Padmadeo | Agenda

Interconnected narrative l Forest conservation l Agriculture l Food security

24 March 2024 | BKP Sinha/ Arvind K jha | Agenda