Chandigarh, April 7: Health and Family Welfare Minister, Punjab Mr. Balbir Singh Sidhu, said that in continuation with its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, Punjab Government has added 79 new private hospitals to the list of tertiary care centres for providing COVID-19 treatment in the 5 most affected districts of the State. He said that the inflow of patients in severe conditions is higher in districts Amritsar, Ludhiana, SAS Nagar (Mohali), Jalandhar and Bathinda.
The Minister said that these districts required more hospitals that are compliant as per the expert committee criteria for providing an optimal level of tertiary care to the COVID-19 patients. He said that hospitals recommended by the expert committee and the hospitals who have submitted self-declaration from these 5 districts have now been authorized as tertiary care hospitals for the treatment of severe patients of COVID-19.
The Health Minister said that daily cases are escalating, and Government has provided optimal level 2 and 3 hospital facilities in the state. Patients are getting free-of-charge treatment in all the Government hospitals and critical patients who are referred to private hospitals from government facilities are also being treated free of cost by the state government.
Mr. Sidhu said that to curb the cases, Punjab’s Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh has ordered a night curfew across the state. Strict enforcement of COVID-19 restrictions is being implemented across the state.
To vaccinate maximum people, State government has set up 2261 Government and 275 Private vaccination centres he said adding that people should follow the COVID-19 appropriate behaviour.
He also appealed to the eligible beneficiaries to get vaccinated at the earliest.
