Chandigarh, March 17: Haryana Chief Minister, Sh. Manohar Lal said that taking serious cognizance of the recent surge of COVID-19 cases, the State has already ramped up its COVID-19 management preparations coupled with aggressive surveillance, stringent containment, swift contact tracing, focused clinical management along with proactive Information Education and Communication (IEC) activities.
The Chief Minister said that while swiftly acting to the present COVID situation, a mega vaccination drive has been run across the State.
"So far, 7.50 lakh people have been vaccinated and on last Monday, under Mega Monday drive record 1.59 lakh people were vaccinated in a single day in Haryana. While now the state has planned to launch such mega drives on every Monday and Tuesday to ensure that every beneficiary receives vaccination doses" shared Sh. Manohar Lal.
He informed that under mega vaccination campaign launched across the state, so far, 80 per cent of Health Care Workers and 67 per cent of Front Line Workers have been vaccinated. Also, 3.5 lakh people above the age of 60 years and people in the age group of 45 to 60 having comorbidities have been vaccinated.
He said last Tuesday as many as 65,000 people were vaccinated under the Mega Tuesday drive. Besides this, the vaccination drive would also be carried out in the rest of the days too.
The Chief Minister shared this information during the meeting on the Situation of COVID-19 chaired by Prime Minister, Sh. Narendra Modi with Chief Ministers of all the States held through video conferencing here today. Deputy Chief Minister, Sh. Dushyant Chautala and Health Minister, Sh. Anil Vij was also present in the meeting.
Divulging details about steps taken by Haryana Government for containment of virus spread, Sh. Manohar Lal said that more emphasis has been laid on the meticulous implementation of COVID-19 Appropriate Behaviour.
The Chief Minister informed that in a bid to once again encourage COVID-19- Appropriate Behaviour among people of the State a drive of imposing a fine on those who are found without masks is being run.
"Apart from this, various awareness campaigns regarding COVID-19 guidelines like wearing masks, sanitizing hands and social distancing are being launched across the State along with enforcement of COVID precautions and guidelines at public places like malls, eating joints, bus stands, schools, colleges etc," shared Sh. Manohar Lal.
Sharing the clinical management strategy adopted by Haryana, the Chief Minister said that the daily testing rate is also to be increased to 25,000 to 30,000 tests per day as it was being done before. He said that the state's RTPCR rate is about 93 per cent.
He informed that Haryana's performance in several parameters as set by the Central Government is better than the national average and the state would further leave no stone unturned to implement the required parameters to contain the COVID-19 virus.
The Chief Minister further informed that the cluster approach for vaccination is being adopted to ensure that vaccination of every beneficiary is done.
The Chief Minister said that as schools have been re-opened, therefore, extensive screening and testing of every student is being done in every district.
The Chief Minister informed that an appeal has also been made to the people of the State to wear masks whenever they venture out. Besides this, eligible beneficiaries in the State have been urged to get themselves vaccinated from both government and private hospitals empanelled with the Government.
“Though vaccination for COVID-19 has been rolled out still we should religiously follow all the guidelines like wearing masks and maintaining social distancing to stay safe and to ensure containment of virus spread," said the Chief Minister.
He said that Inter-Departmental committees have been formed at the District level for the containment of virus spread. Besides, the State is also planning to limit the number of people in social gatherings.
Chief Secretary, Sh. Vijai Vardhan, Additional Chief Secretary, Medical Education and Research Department, Sh. Alok Nigam, Additional Chief Secretary, Health and Family Welfare Department, Sh. Rajeev Arora, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Sh. V. Umashankar, Additional Principal Secretary to Chief Minister and Director General, Information Public Relations and Languages Department, Dr. Amit Agrawal, Deputy Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Smt. Ashima Brar, Director General of Police, Sh. Manoj Yadava, Mission Director National Health Mission, Haryana, Sh. Prabhjot Singh and other senior officers were present in the meeting.