Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has announced a 4-week extension of lockdown in Punjab, till June 30, with more relaxations. The Chief Minister said the state would take into account the central government guidelines for Lockdown 5.0.
The minister during his Facebook Live session said that the threat of COVID-19 was not over yet, and if necessary, he would continue to take tough measures to save the lives of the people of Punjab.
He said the lockdown in Punjab would be conditional to strict adherence to COVID-19 safety protocols, including physical distancing and wearing of masks. He also ordered distribution of free masks to the poor.
He directed Food & Civil Supplies Minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu to ensure immediate steps for the distribution of masks as part of ration kids to the needy and poor, who could not afford to purchase them.
"Asha workers and other local women from the community were being hired to undertake home to home surveillance across districts, and they would be paid Rs 2 per head in every household surveyed," he said.
He also spoke about the app which would be launched in 2-3 days which was being filed-tested for the tracing and tracking of symptomatic cases who were not reporting to the health authorities.
"Youngsters would be asked to download the app to voluntarily report on such cases," said Agarwal, adding that mandatory OTP verification of these Covid Foot Soldiers would be ensured to check false reporting.
Though there was an overall decline in the daily cases, and of the 2158 positive cases so far, 1946 had recovered fully, the new cases that had emerged in the last few days was a matter of concern, he added, appealing to people to report any instance of returnees someone jumping medical checking by the state government.
Underscoring the need to strictly adhere to all health norms, Captain Amarinder said that 36,820 people have been fined for not wearing masks and 4032 persons for spitting in public in just 11 days from May 17 till May 28.
As many as 6,061 persons had been fined for not wearing masks in just the last 24 hours, he said, adding that 503 FIRs had been registered in this period for violation of rules.
Expressing his concern about possible community spread in his reply to another query, he said this is the threat we face now and he would keep this fact in mind while deciding about relaxations.
On the locust threat, the Chief Minister said all arrangements had been put in place in seven districts bordering Rajasthan and Haryana.
To a question regarding the Centre's conditions for availing additional debt, the Chief Minister said that in a federal structure, a state is responsible for ensuring the economic growth of its people.
“We are custodians of our people's financial needs,” he said, asserting that the Centre would have to remove these conditionalities in the spirit of federalism.
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