Safety protocols go for a toss in Amritsar

Spurt in Covid cases in other districts has prompted admn to caution people

Not giving two hoots to rules Residents roam without face masks at Heritage Street in Amritsar on Friday. Vishal Kumar

PK Jaiswar

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, November 20

Even though the administration has geared up to tackle the threat of a second wave of the Covid-19 contagion by updating its medical infrastructure, residents are giving a damn about the safety protocols.

69 new cases reported

The district on Friday reported 69 new cases of Covid-19 pushing the total to 12,577. On the other hand, 21 more patients recovered from the disease taking the count of cured patients to 11,546. At present, there are 554 active cases. As no death was reported today, the death toll stood at 477.

A large number of residents can be seen roaming without masks and violating other protocols like maintaining physical or social distance. People have no fear of the law and are not following the guidelines issued by the Central and state governments.

There is a spurt in Covid-19 cases in several parts of the country which prompted the government to urge the people not to throw the government instructions to the wind. The Haryana Government has ordered the shutting down of private schools till November end while emergency steps are being taken in Delhi and Ahmedabad for tackling the situation emerged due to the rising Covid-19 cases again. The Delhi Government has even announced to hike the fine for violating the instructions to stop the spread of the deadly virus.

Dr Rakesh Sharma, a local resident, said people should follow the guidelines religiously to fight the virus otherwise the Punjab Government would be forced to take stern action against the violators and offenders like the Delhi government did.

The district administration, led by Deputy Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Khaira, recently held a meeting with local health authorities and private hospital managements. He asked the private hospital managements to share information regarding Covid-19 patients and arrangements in their hospitals with the local authorities.

He also directed the health authorities to review the arrangements made during the peak period of the virus like control room, Covid centres, ambulances and ICUs. They were also asked to take necessary steps to remove any shortcomings.