COVID-19 WAR ROOM MEETING DIRECTIONS

15th June, 2021 Hon’ble Governor of Punjab and Administrator, UT Chandigarh, Sh. VP Singh Badnore today presided over War Room meeting. The meeting was attended by Sh. Arun Kumar Gupta, Principal Secretary Home and Sh. Sanjay Baniwal, Director General of Police at Punjab Raj Bhawan. Sh. KK Yadav, Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, Sh. Mandip Singh Brar, Deputy Commissioner, UT, Sh. Yashpal Garg, CEO, Chandigarh Housing Board, Sh. Vinod P. Kavle, Secretary IT, Sh. SS Gill, Secretary Education, Sh. Uma Shankar Gupta, Director Transport and Deputy Commissioners of Mohali & Panchkula, Director, PGIMER, Director Principal, GMCH-32 & Director Health Services, GMSH-16 attended through Video Conferencing. WAR ROOM DIRECTIONS 1. Dr. Jagat Ram, Director PGIMER stated that they have 122 covid cases in PGIMER, out of which 17 belong to Chandigarh, 66 to Punjab, 25 to Haryana, 08 to Himachal Pradesh & 06 from other states. He also mentioned that they have tested 7,555 samples and the positivity rate was 1.9% for Chandigarh. He further mentioned that the number of Mucormycosis (Black fungus) seem to be plateauing, as the number of cases reporting daily have gone down to 5-6 in the last 2-3 days from about 15 cases per day earlier. Presently, total 36 such patients are being treated in PGIMER. Dr. Jasbinder Kaur, Director Principal, GMCH-32 stated that they have tested 5,347 covid samples and the positivity rate was found to be 1%. She also mentioned that there are 43 active cases of Mucormycosis (Black fungus), out of which 09 are also suffering from corona. Dr. Amandeep Kang, Director Health Services stated that they have tested 15,240 covid samples and the positivity rate was 2.9%. She mentioned that the overall recovery rate was 97.7% and the fatality rate was 1.3%. She also mentioned that the doubling rate is now 724 days. She also mentioned that 4,11,789 doses of vaccines have been administered in Chandigarh and presently about 6,000 doses are being administered daily. 2. Deputy Commissioner, Panchkula stated that 156 samples were tested positive in the last week with the positivity rate of 2.2%, Deputy Commissioner, Mohali stated that 342 samples were tested positive in the last week with the positivity rate of 4.9% and Deputy Commissioner, UT, Chandigarh stated that 453 samples were tested positive in the last week with the positivity rate of 2.9%. 3. During the discussions on Sero-Survey to be conducted by PGIMER, it was apprised by PGIMER that the sero-survey of persons below 18 years of age is very useful study for Chandigarh, as such population has not been vaccinated and so the results of sero-survey could be useful in devising future strategy of vaccinating this age group. It was also apprised that such a survey targeted for paediatric group has not been conducted anywhere in the country and in view of the apprehensions of 3rd wave hitting this un-vaccinated population, the study could be used by public health experts in devising the strategy. 4. Hon’ble Governor of Punjab and Administrator, UT directed all concerned, particularly Engineering and Health Departments to make all preparations, as monsoon is round the corner. 5. After detailed discussions in the War Room, the following decisions regarding additional relaxations were taken :-  All shops will remain open from 10:00 AM to 07:00 PM. The shop owners will ensure that covid protocol is duly followed.  All restaurants/bars can remain open with 50% capacity from 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM.  The night curfew in the city will be from 10:30 PM to 05:00 AM.  The decision regarding Sunday closure would be taken subsequently.