Punjab Chief Secy reviews COVID-19 situation, directs ramping up of testing in schools

Punjab Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan on Wednesday directed the state to ramp up COVID-19 testing and conduct at least 10,000 RT-PCR tests in schools daily to ensure the COVID-19 situation remains under control. The Deputy Commissioners of the state have been instructed to only allow fully vaccinated teaching and non-teaching staff to attend the schools. She further said that the target of 40,000 samples per day should be achieved and must increase further if the COVID cases rise.

This comes as the chief secretary reviewed the movement of people to Punjab from other states, where the COVID-19 cases are on rise. She asked the officials to be alert and monitor the positivity rate ahead of the festival season. "Epidemiologists have been appointed in all the districts and all-out efforts should be made to thwart the possible third COVID wave. Going with the forecast, new cases can be expected to double in about 64 days," she said. In Punjab, 2,45,823 samples were collected in the past week from August 3 to 9, and only 352 had tested positive for COVID-19, keeping the positivity rate at 0.1 per cent.

Bracing up for the potential third COVID wave, the Chief Secretary said that every district must try to increase the capacity of the beds by 25 per cent from the second wave's peak demand. Mahajan ordered the state to make all PSA plants operational by the end of August to be able to meet the demand for life-saving gas in case the anticipated third wave strikes the state. COVID Control Room Incharge, Ajoy Sharma (IAS) told the Chief Secretary that the COVA app has been updated to manage the COVID-19 data more effectively. The sample collection centre application was added to the app that will allow to upload and update date of the RT-PCR tests and other COVID tests. 

What is the use of the COVA app?

The Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) will visit those patients who are under home isolation to collect their vitals. The teams will then report the health parameters of the patients on the COVA app and that the hospitals can log in on the portal and update the status of patients admitted to their hospitals. Through the app, they must report the status of beds with the bifurcation of L2 and L3 beds in their institutions on a daily basis and must keep the government updated regarding the number of COVID patients on oxygen support, without oxygen support, suspected COVID patients on oxygen and without oxygen support.  

(With ANI inputs)