Wearing face masks compulsory in Punjab now

Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, April 9

The state government has made wearing of masks compulsory for all. Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh gave the go ahead for the implementation of the order, and asked the Health Secretary to issue detailed guidelines in this regard.

The CM said homemade masks were also allowed. He also banned any type of religious congregation in the state.

Meanwhile, the Health Ministers of four Congress-ruled states of Punjab, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Puducherry shared the best practices adopted in their states to contain the spread of Covid-19. The interaction was held through a videoconference late last evening.

Each state shared its strategy, and apprehending the future spike in cases, agreed upon the need to scale up tracing and testing.

Balbir Singh Sidhu, Health Minister, Punjab, said the state had ramped up testing capacity 10 times with the procurement of requisite machines. Punjab intends to launch a rapid testing drive aiming to screen one million people, he said. Gearing up for this, acquisition of 10 lakh rapid testing kits had been approved by the Cabinet and order for requisition of one lakh kits from the ICMR had been placed.