Chandigarh, April 9 – The Haryana Chief Minister, Mr. Manohar Lal announced to double the salary of doctors, nurses, paramedical staff, testing staff, class IV employees, and all those who come in direct contact with COVID-19 patients.

The Chief Minister made this announcement while addressing the medical fraternity and others who are working directly with COVID-19 positive patients over live television today.

The Chief Minister announced that personnel, like doctors, nurses, paramedical staff, testing staff, class IV employees, and all those who come in direct contact with COVID-19 patients will receive double salary for as long as the Corona crisis lasts. He further said that those workers who are not covered under the government schemes will also receive ex-gratia under to the tune of Rs 50 lakh for doctors, Rs 30 lakh for nurses, Rs 20 lakh for paramedics and Rs 10 lakh for class IV employees.

The Chief Minister called upon the doctors and said that during this pandemic, doctors are playing the role of commander. He said that apart from this, people engaged in the work of management, paramedics, testing lab, ambulance are also struggling with this pandemic day and night, regardless of concern for themselves and their families, considering the society as their family. He urged all those fighting this pandemic that in this time of difficulty and crisis, we all have to stop the COVID-19 outbreak with enthusiasm and work as a team. He said that if we all fight this battle together then we will definitely achieve our objective.

He said that apart from the Government departments that are working against COVID-19, the public had displayed high morale and had been of great help as social and religious organizations and volunteers came forward to pitch in with their contributions and services.

Haryana Health Minister, Mr. Anil Vij, said that random sampling will be started so that the State Government can have an accurate insight. While addressing the personnel who are working directly with COVID-19 patients he assured them that the State was well equipped with the necessary equipment and medicines to fight this pandemic and that the State Government was doing everything in its power to ensure the same.

He said that though problems were faced initially, but efforts to arrange for PPE kits and N95 masks, three-ply masks, hydroxychloroquine, ventilators, testing labs, etc were underway. Over 15000 people were quarantined to prevent the spread of the disease, he added.

He said that 14 hospitals have been converted to COVID-19 hospitals in the State and that positive cases will be treated in these hospitals alone so that no other patients could catch this disease.

Mr. Vij said that the State Government was trying its best to stay abreast of the situation and that with the help of each and every individual this pandemic would be defeated.

Giving information about the measures that were being taken to fight this pandemic, Nodal Officer for COVID-19, Mr. Rajeev Arora said that keeping in mind the directions of the Central Government, the State will increase the frequency of sample testing to 125 samples per district in non affected districts and 450 samples per district in affected districts like Gurugram, Palwal, Faridabad, and Nuh over the next four to five days. He further said that the State will soon receive rapid diagnostic kits which will be used in hot spots where 15 or more positive cases have been reported.

He said that the Central Government has taken 1 lakh samples and 2.5 lakh samples will be taken by April 14 while in Haryana 2500 samples have been sent for testing till now and 6500 samples will be sent for testing by April 14.

He informed that sampling will start at Kalpana Chawla Medical College today while ICR Lab in Hisar will be started in the next few days and the testing lab in Panchkula will be started by the end of this week.