33K volunteers sign up in battle against Covid

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 26

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar today urged the people of the state to adhere to the lockdown announced by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying arrangements were being made to provide essential commodities to people.

In an address to residents through a televised address, Khattar said extensive arrangements had been made through district and police administration to deliver daily essential commodities to people. He said along with the administration, online arrangements had been made for registration of volunteers on the portal.

He said in the last four days, 33,000 persons had registered themselves as volunteers, which includes 546 doctors, 255 nurses, 1,108 paramedics, 4,700 home delivery assistants, 5,700 for social distancing communication, 5,700 for public communication and 6,200 for supporting the district administration.

The Chief Minister also apprised that five dedicated laboratories had been made available in the state for Covid testing and two more were being set up. Similarly, 2,500 isolation beds and about 6,500 quarantine beds were available.

He said the Haryana COVID-19 Relief Fund had received contributions from over 2,000 persons to the tune of Rs 5.84 core. Any person can make a contribution to this fund through e-banking or RTGS or QR code, UPI, NEFT. For this, account number 39234755902 has been opened in State Bank of India, Panchkula and the IFSC code is SBIN0001509.

The CM said under the Mukhyamantri Parivar Samridhi Yojana, 12.56 lakh families had been registered till date. Of this, 2.76 lakh families had been given lumpsum assistance of Rs 84.46 crore in two installments of Rs 4,000. Similarly, it has been decided to give Rs 1,000 a week to 3.85 lakh workers registered with the Construction Workers Board. Apart from this, BPL families will also be given Rs 1,000 a week and for families who are not in the BPL list, separate arrangements will be made for their registration.

The CM appealed to the people of the state to come forward to give their suggestions or share problems related to Covid. For this, helpline numbers 1075 and 1100 have been set up.

Govt to pay for treatment, buy 300 ventilators

• The state has asked all government, government-aided and private medical colleges to reserve at least 25% beds
• Also, expenditure on treatment of Covid patients, whether in government or private hospital, would be borne by the state
• At the Crisis Coordination Committee meeting, it was informed that adequate stock of N-95 masks and personal protective equipment (PPE) Kit was available
• While delivery of 15,000 such masks has been received, order for 20,000 has been placed. Order for 22 lakh 3-ply face mask has also been placed by the Health Department
• Also, 722 ventilators have been kept reserve for Covid patients and order has been placed for about 300 ventilators