Himachal CM: Government ready to handle Covid-19 case surge

Shimla, January 13

Expressing concern over sharp increase in Covid cases in the state, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur today said that the government was fully prepared to meet any eventuality.

While holding a meeting with senior officers of the state government immediately after the video conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the CM directed the officers to strengthen the mechanism of home isolation. He also directed them to make best possible arrangements for transportation of patients from home to health institutions so that they could be provided immediate treatment.

Thakur said that the state today has over 11,500 beds expandable to 17,000 beds in addition to 2,374 dedicated beds with oxygen, 8,765 Covid dedicated beds, 237 ICU beds and 1,014 ventilators.

The CM said the state has 48 PSA plants with 59.37 MT oxygen capacity, 21,00 A-type cylinders, 5009 B-Type cylinders, 1112 D-type cylinders and 5723 concentrators. He said that there was adequate stock of essential medicines such as PCM 650, PCM 500, remdesivir, dexamethasone, hydro cortisone, etc. He said that adequate stock of consumables such as PPE kits and N-95 masks was available in the state.

Thakur said that the state has already achieved the target of 100 per cent vaccination of 15-18 age group. Now the state government was striving to achieve the target of cent per cent precaution dose for health care workers, frontline workers and senior citizens. He said that greater stress was being laid on testing, tracking, treating and ‘teekakaran’ (vaccination). — TNS

Office Exemption

The government on Thursday exempted persons with disabilities and pregnant women from attending office but they will be required to work from home. It has already declared five-day working for its staff and that too with 50% capacity.

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