Express News Service
CHANDIGARH: The Punjab government on Saturday ordered mandatory full Covid vaccination or negative RTPCR report for all those entering the state from Monday, with strict monitoring particularly of those coming from Himachal Pradesh and Jammu, which are showing increased positivity. With projections of new cases set to double in about 64 days at the present rate of growth, the state government also ordered Covid testing in the state to be increased to at least 60,000 tests per day.
The rule on full vaccination or negative RTPCR report will apply to all those entering Punjab by road, rail or air, announced Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, adding that if a person is found to not have either of these, RAT testing shall be mandatory, unless he or she has recently recovered from Covid.
Reviewing the state’s preparation for an imminent third wave, Amarinder directed the health department to undertake priority sentinel testing for OPD/IPD patients at government and private hospitals, travellers at entry points, government offices, industries and labour colonies, staff at marriage palaces, restaurants, pubs, bars, gyms etc. Based on this, districts should formulate strategies for micro-containment zones, he said, noting with satisfaction that the GIS based surveillance and prevention tool, with an auto trigger mechanism for localised restrictions, is now live in all districts and will help guide local restrictions, if needed.
Health Advisor to the Punjab government Dr KK Talwar informed the meeting that the state was fully geared to tackle the third wave and the situation was currently stable.
Amid reports of Covid cases in schools, Amarinder has also directed that only fully vaccinated teaching and non-teaching staff, or those recently recovered from Covid, should physically teach in schools and colleges, with online learning option to remain available to all children.
He further ordered prioritisation of teachers and non-teaching staff for vaccination, with special camps to be held to ensure that all are covered with the first dose within this month and those due for the second dose to be also prioritised. Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu suggested reducing the gap between the two doses to prioritise a second dose for teachers and other school staff. Amarinder expressed concern about the positivity in Himachal Pradesh and other parts of the country, which has caused positivity in Punjab to also increase marginally to 0.2 per cent in the last week, with RO going up to 1.05 per cent.
He has ordered at least 10000 test samples of students and staff from schools to be undertaken every day. Districts and cities where positivity is above 0.2 per cent have been asked to shut down physical education for Classes 4 and below until the situation improves.
On schools, which have recently reopened for certain classes in the state, he said while there were some reports of high positivity in schools, the fact was that intensive testing had shown that the positivity amongst school students is 0.1 per cent against overall positivity of 0.2 per cent in the past one week. Since August 9, 41 students and 1 staff member in government schools have testedpositive.
Calling for strict vigil, he directed the concerned departments to ensure that only fully vaccinated teaching as well as non-teaching staff shall physically teach in schools and colleges. In case the whole teaching staff is not fully vaccinated, those who are fully vaccinated can attend to the students in the school and virtual classes can be taken by teachers who are not fully vaccinated. The number of students should be suitably curtailed if enough fully vaccinated teachers are not available, ordered the Chief Minister, directing schools to allow seating of only one child per bench.
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