Punjab CM announces 3-month extension of doctors amid pandemic

In a bid to contain the spread of deadly coronavirus pandemic in the state, Captain Amarinder Singh-led Punjab government has announced a three-month extension for all retiring doctors and specialists under the age of 60 years. The process of recruitment of technicians and lab assistants will also be enhanced to meet the needs.

Chandigarh: With both cases and fatalities due to COVID-19 escalating, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Monday announced a three-month extension for all retiring doctors and specialists under 60, and also asked the Chief Secretary to expedite the process of recruitment of technicians and lab assistants for coping with the exponential demand.

As per a Cabinet decision, these doctors were earlier given extension till September 30, which has now been extended till December 31, 2020, said the Chief Minister.

During a virtual review of the COVID situation with top officials and medical/health experts, the Chief Minister pointed out that the Health Department is already supporting the GMCs with specialist manpower pending recruitment by the Medical Education Department. Special relaxation has been given by the Finance Department to enable Colleges to hire other manpower, he said.

The Chief Minister also directed the formation of committees, under the respective DCs, for distribution of food packets to poor families under home isolation/quarantine and encourage testing as such families generally refrained from getting themselves tested for COVID for fear of losing their meagre earnings.

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A series of measures have been further announced by Captain Amarinder Singh to ease the stress of COVID patients in hospitals and at homes. It has been decided that government hospitals will now permit serious COVID patients with special dietary requirements to be provided home food if they wish. To alleviate the psychological stress of serious patients in isolation in hospitals, and of their family members, the government will provide some equipment in these wards to enable video calls between patients and their attendants.

Further, the Chief Minister has directed all government labs to start providing the Cycle Threshold (CT) value of an RT-PCR test as it can give useful information to the doctors treating a COVID patient.

To ensure regular monitoring the COVID patients in home isolation, especially above 40 years of age, Captain Amarinder asked the Health Department to put in place a system of ensuring their clinical progress to check sudden deterioration. COVID Patient Tracking Officers have been appointed in each district to ensure such patients receive due care, he said.

Expressing concern over the delayed testing, that was leading to the increase in fatalities, the Chief Minister urged the departments to aggressively reach out to people to go for testing at the first sign of symptoms and not indulge in false bravado.

Punjab government will provide 50,000 free of cost COVID Care kits to active patients in hospitals and home isolation to ensure better care for them.

The kits, costing Rs 1700 each, includes an Oximeter, Digital Thermometer, Face Masks and necessary medication.

The move is part of the wider state government endeavour to ensure that all patients get complete medical care at their doorstep, thus facilitating their early and complete recovery from the disease.

The specially designed kit would also include a Steamer, one Hand Sanitizer, besides 60 Giloy tablets, thirty Vitamin C Tablets and four Vitamin D3.

The Pulse Oximeter will help the patients keep track of their Oxygen levels, while Digital Thermometer will be used to check body temperature for constant monitoring by the doctor. Use of steamer has been prescribed twice daily for 5-10 Minutes.

Vitamin Zinc Zinconia 50 MG (30 tablets), Topcid 40 MG (14 tablets), Immunity Plus Liquid 200 ML (Kahra), 15 tablets of Dolo 650 MG, Multi-Vitamin Supradyn Tablet (30 tablets) besides a Cough Syrup 100 ML, Betadyne Gargles or Salt Gargles, ten Cetirizine Tab Okacet and Balloon Big Size (3) would also be provided as part of the COVID Care Kit. The patients would be advised to add fresh 8 Tulsi leaves every morning to their diet.

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Patients would be advised to take 2 Giloy tablets daily in the morning for 30 days to boost immunity. Likewise, Vitamin C tablets have been prescribed 2 each morning and evening for 15 days. Vitamin D3 is to be consumed one per week for 4 weeks at night.

Cough syrup has been added for SOS measure, only to be taken in case of cough. Similarly, Dolo medicine is to be taken in case fever is more than 100 degrees Celsius. 50 masks have been provided, of which one should be used for a maximum of 8 hours and the used mask should be discarded.

The directions came as active cases in the state stood at 16,156 as on September 6, with a cumulative fatality rate of 2.9 per cent and deaths per million at 62. The average positivity for the week from August 26 to September 3 was 9.42% per cent, Health Secretary Hussan Lal informed the meeting. Tracing of contacts per infected person had been increased to 4.4 per case during the August 27 – September 3 period, he disclosed.

Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan said that both cases and fatalities had witnessed a steady increase in the past few days, with 89 per cent deaths reported from Level 3 cases. The situation was being monitored on a day to day basis, she said, adding that the Expert Group headed by Dr KK Talwar was meeting every day.

Medical Education Secretary DK Tiwari apprised the Virtual meeting of the tertiary care status at various government medical colleges, and also gave an update on the Plasma Banks and the testing carried out at the VRDL labs under Mission Fateh of the state government.

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