Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan has written to Punjab government after the central team visited the state to monitor the Covid-19 surge stating that contact tracing has not been done in many districts and RTPCR testing has also decreased.
In the last 24 hours, 59 deaths and 3,116 new Covid cases were reported in Punjab. Chandigarh recorded 402 cases on Sunday, followed by 300 in Mohali district and 116 in Panchkula. The tricity had reported 1,000+ cases for three consecutive days, with the past five days accounting for 5,245 or nearly 7% of the total 77,036 cases reported since the outbreak last March.
According to the report sent by the Central team, contact tracing is not being done properly in many districts of Punjab.
“There is a need to enhance focus on contact tracing in Patiala and Ludhiana. Contact tracing and surveillance efforts in SAS Nagar are being hampered due to shortage of manpower. Additional manpower must be deployed for contact tracing on a priority basis. Low rates of testing have been reported from Patiala. Also as reported by the team, there is no RT-PCR testing laboratory in Rupnagar. This has been addressed urgently,” the letter stated based on the feedback from the Central teams.
According to the observation, there is no dedicated Covid Hospital in SAS Nagar and Rupnagar districts and patients are being referred to neighbouring districts or Chandigarh. Bhushan also highlighted that shortage of healthcare workforce has been reported from Patiala, SAS Nagar and Rupnagar.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court Bar Association, Chandigarh, has also launched a vaccination drive for inoculation against Covid-19 in the tricity.
