Punjab Health Minister instructs Civil Surgeons to keep testing for COVID-19 at least 1000 per million populations
Feb 12, 2021
Chandigarh (Punjab) [India], February 12 : Punjab Health and Family Welfare Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu on Friday issued instructions to all civil surgeons to implement strictly COVID appropriate behaviours and keep testing for COVID-19 at least 1000 per million populations.
According to a press statement from Punjab's Information and Public Relations Department, Balbir Sidhu said to accelerate contact tracing of COVID-19 patients, instructions have been issued to trace at least 20 contacts of every positive patient and get them tested as well.
He said that contact tracing increased from about 4 contacts per case to nearly 12 contacts per positive case.
Sidhu stated "At peak, Punjab used to report 2500 to 3000 cases per day. Due to good containment efforts of Captain Amrinder Singh led Punjab Government, in the last two months, the number of cases has been decreasing steadily and the average daily cases reported came down to about 200 per day with a recovery rate of 95 per cent".
The last few days have seen an uprise in the number of COVID-19 cases in the State with 309 cases being reported on February 11, 2021, said Health Minister, adding that this trend indicates, COVID-19 is not over yet and we are at risk of witnessing a surge in the number of cases which strictly requires the need for following COVID-19 appropriate behaviors like social distancing, wearing of masks and hand sanitization.
Divulging about the vaccination program, Sidhu said, so far 2.05 lakh Health Care Workers (HCW) and 1.77 lakh Front Line Workers (FLW) have been registered for COVID-19 vaccination. About 74,286 HCW and 23,085 FLW have been vaccinated in the state.
He assured that the vaccine is safe and effective and every HCW and FLW must get vaccinated. It is for them and their families' safety.
Sidhu mentioned that as of today 80 containment zone and 2,081 micro containment zones have been declared by the Health Department to control the spread of the virus in the state.
