Punjab heads to shutdown with suspended bus services, govt's public dealings, OPDs among others

After the death of a corona-positive patients due to a cardiac arrest, the Punjab on Thursday seemed heading to a lockdown with the government banning private and public bus services, stopping all public dealings in government offices and suspending OPD services in hospitals, among others.

The other drastic preventive measures that the state government resorted to included a decision to mandatorily stamp recently-returned NRIs with indelible ink, close all dental colleges and hospitals and train third and fourth year MBBS students for handling corona-hit patients.

The decisions were taken by a seven-member ministerial panel set up under the chairpersonship of state's local bodies minister Brahm Mohindra to monitor the emerging situation in the state amid the global outbreak of the coronavirus.

After a meeting of the panel, Mohindra announced the decisions, describing the situation in the state as "alarming" and said, the private and public bus services in the state has been banned from Friday midnight to prevent the public from movingout of their houses without an emergency.

The taxis and rickshaws, however, have been exempted from this ban, he added.

Maintaining that the ministerial panel has taken all its decisions unanimously, Mohindra said "it is the time to take concrete and bold steps and the time to issue only advisories for the people has passed".

The minister also announced the postponement of the state education board's examinations of classes 10 and 12 have till March 31, in line with the central educational boards' measure.

He also said all public dealings in the government offices have been called off with immediate effect.

The panel also decided to increase the number of isolation wards set up in different public and private hospitals and medical institutions and to strengthen the services by ensuring the availability of medical and para medical staff and adequate stock of medicines.

Accordingly, the routine OPD services in hospitals have been postponed but emergency services at all hospitals and primary health centres will be continued 24X7, he said.

The ministerial panel has also decided to close all dental colleges and hospitals with immediate effect till March 31, Mohindra said.

The classes of the first and second year students in medical colleges too have been postponed while the classes of third and fourth year would continue and they would be given first-hand training to tackle COVID-19 patients, in case of any eventuality, he said.

Likewise the classes of first year students of nursing colleges have been called off till March 31 but the classes of nursing students from second year onward would be continued, he added.

The minister said the GoM has also decided to restrict gatherings for any function like marriages and funerals only up to 20 persons.

Organisers of such functions have been advised to adhere tothe frequent hand-washing protocol.

He said the GoM has also decided to strictly implement the home-quarantine protocol for all NRIs and passengers coming from any country in the last 15 days to keep them in isolation at their homes up to 14 days.

It has also been decided to do mandatory stamping with indelible ink of all such NRIs and passengers in a bid to identify them in case they go out,Mohindra said.

The GoM has also appeal to all citizens to keep a check on the movement of NRIs and passengers coming from other countries and immediately inform authorities to keep them under observation for the safety of the public, he said.

All deputy commissioners, senior superintendents of police, chief medical officers, superintending medical officers have been directed not to leave the station, he said.