By PTI
CHANDIGARH: The Punjab government on Wednesday decided to ease restrictions on public gatherings in the wake of improvement in the COVID-19 situation in the state.
According to the decision, the government has allowed an indoor gathering of 300 people and outdoor gathering of 500 people.
Earlier, it was 150 for indoor and 300 for outdoor gatherings.
While reviewing the Covid situation in the state, Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi asked the School Education Department to encourage students to attend classes by following necessary health protocols, according to a government release.
Likewise, he also asked the Social Security, Women and Child Development Department to reopen ‘anganwadi’ centres while strictly following the prescribed Covid safety norms.
Expressing satisfaction over the decline in positivity rate of Covid cases, the chief minister also asked the Health Department to ensure strict compliance to Covid safety protocols including wearing of face masks and maintaining social distancing.
He also asked the department to ramp up the testing capacity up to 50,000 per day as a precautionary measure in view of the coming festive season.
While making a brief presentation on the current Covid scenario, Principal Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, Alok Shekhar said a total 232 cases were reported in past one week with an average of 33 positive cases per day, the release said.
He further said that from September 14 to 20, only one case of mucormycosis was reported, it said.
The state on Wednesday reported one Covid-related death and 26 fresh cases, a medical bulletin said.
So far, the total number of coronavirus cases reported in the state is 6,01,600, it stated.
The death toll rose to 16,513.
Three deaths were added to the toll after reconciliation of data, as per the bulletin.
Among the new COVID-19 cases, Mohali reported eight, followed by four in Gurdaspur and three in Jalandhar.
The number of active cases stands at 290.
Twenty-seven more people recovered from the infection, taking the number of those who have been cured to 5,84,797, as per the bulletin.
Chandigarh reported five cases, taking the total count of coronavirus cases to 65,224.
With no death reported in the last 20 hours, the toll remained at 819.
The number of active cases in the city was 42, while the number of cured persons was 64,363.
