Justifying the decision of sudden imposition of lockdown in the entire state for one week, Haryana Home-cum- Health Minister Anil Vij on Monday said that the state is witnessing an unexpected tsunami of COVID cases on a daily basis and the active cases have crossed one lakh.
People were not following COVID-19 safety protocols and lockdown was the last resort to break the chain of spread of virus in the state, said Vij while talking to the mediapersons.
Admitting that people would face problems due to lockdown, the Minister said that there was no other way to contain the spread of COVID-19. People should not step out of their houses unless it is very urgent, he added.
After ruling out imposition of lockdown since the past fortnight in the state, Haryana Government had on Sunday announced one-week lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19.
While the state is witnessing a record number of deaths and fresh cases on a daily basis, it has added nearly 2 lakh cases and over 1,000 fatalities between April 1 and April 30. The worst affected Gurugram district had contributed 59,540 cases during April.
Haryana is under lockdown from Monday to 5 am on May 10. Vaccination centres, banks and essential services will remain functional during the weeklong lockdown.
The Health Minister also said that strict action will be taken against hospitals which are over-charging for facilities or any other medical assistance from COVID patients in the state.
He said that the rates of beds and other facilities have been fixed for the Corona patients undergoing treatment in private hospitals of the state. Currently, 42 private hospitals in the state are treating COVID patients, he added.
Vij further said that a three-member committee has been constituted for distribution of Tocilizumab injection as per the requirement for patients admitted to government and private hospitals. COVID 19 state nodal officer Dr. Dhruv Chaudhary has been appointed as the Chairman of the committee.
Apart from this, senior consultant, Dr. Rajeev Badera and Medanta’s Senior Doctor, Dr. Sushila Kataria have been appointed as members of the committee. This committee will set the criteria regarding the delivery of injections and other related matters. These injections will be made available to local hospitals through local civil surgeons at the purchase price and these injections will be given free of cost to government hospitals and medical colleges, Vij said.
On the issue of burden on health infrastructure, the Health Minister further said that about 70 percent of patients admitted in Haryana hospitals are from Delhi and other adjoining states, who are also being treated in the same way.
About shortage of manpower in hospitals, he said that the government will soon start the process of new recruitment to meet the shortage of doctors and paramedical staff in the state. Around 1,400 students of PG and MBBS finalists studying in various medical colleges of the state have been ordered to serve in the hospitals of the state in the midst of this pandemic crisis.
Along with this, teams of high level officials are working 24 hours to supply oxygen in all the hospitals of the state, he added.
OXYGEN PLANT TO BE SET UP IN PEHOWA
Haryana Minister of State for Sports and Youth Affairs, Sandeep Singh said that an oxygen plant of 45-cylinder capacity will soon be set up in the new building the Government Hospital on the Arunay Road of Pehowa. He elaborated that all formalities of this plant which is to be built at a cost of more than Rs 40 lakh, have been completed.
This oxygen plant will be set up here with the personal funds of the Sports Minister.
REMDESIVIR BLACK MARKETING ACCUSED HELD IN PANIPAT
Haryana Police has arrested a person accused of running a racket in Panipat in connection with black-marketing of Remdesivir drug, which is in high demand for the treatment of COVID-19 patients. A spokesperson informed that the primary probe revealed that arrested accused used to buy injection from an Uttarakhand resident at the rate of Rs 12000 per vial and then sold the same between Rs 15000 to Rs 30000. Arrested accused was identified as Pardeep, a resident of Panipat. The accused had already carried out black-marketing of 650 injections out of 750 vials brought so far. Of these, the arrested accused gave 100 injections to his nephew Sumit, 150 to Saksham and 40 injections to Keshav for black-marketing, the spokesman said.
