Coronavirus: Punjab asks NRIs who visited state after January 30 to register themselves

Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, March 28

The Punjab government has asked non-resident Indians (NRIs) who visited the state after January 30 to call 112 and register themselves.

The development comes in the back of rising coronavirus cases in both the state and the country.

Punjab’s positive cases current stand at 38 from 898 people who were tested. Its positive cases also include the 70-year-old man who died last week and later tested positive for the deadly contagion.

Punjab reported no new cases of coronavirus until Saturday evening, a media bulletin by the state government showed.

The bulletin said it was awaiting results for some 264 suspected cases. Some 596 people have so far tested negative and one person has been cured, the bulletin said.

Currently, the contagion has been reported rom six districts of Punjab’s 22. Of the 38 positive cases in the state, 19 came from SBS Nagar, six cases from Mohali and Hoshiarpur, five from Jalandhar and one each from Amritsar and from Ludhiana.

Meanwhile, Punjab’s health department has decided to recruit pharmacists, staff nurses, radiographers, laboratory technicians, ANMs, and ward attendants on a temporary basis in the light of the mounting health crisis. In an advertisement issued in various newspapers, the health department said that it would pay the new recruits on a daily basis---Rs 750 a day for ward attendants and Rs 1,000 a day for the others.

Health and Family Welfare Minister Balbir Sidhu said the state government was yet undecided how many they wanted to engage on such basis.

“Once we will get the applications, we’ll start asking requisition from various districts and will begin recruitment according to that,” he said.

The country’s cases have spiralled to over 800, with 19 deaths reported so far, including one from Punjab. The state government imposed curfew in the state earlier this week in an attempt to stop the virus spread. The central government also followed a day later with a nationwide lockdown.

Experts say that the lockdown will help “flatten the curve” of the virus.

Helpline numbers

The central government has launched helpline numbers for each state as the country grapples with rising number of coronavirus cases.

The number for Chandigarh is 0172-2704048, for Haryana 0172-2545938 and for Punjab  0172-2747798.

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