Manohar Lal Khattar chairs high-level meeting with Cabinet and  State Ministers and Administrative Secretaries

Chandigarh : In a bid to effectively tackle the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, concerted efforts are being made by the Haryana Government so as to ensure that every precious life in the State can be saved. From increasing the number of oxygen beds in hospitals, setting up new oxygen plants, Isolation Centres and COVID Care Centres, the State Government is leaving no stone unturned to provide adequate health facilities to every patient. However to combat the spread of Pandemic in rural areas,  now special  multidisciplinary teams have been constituted to conduct door to door health checkups of villagers.This was stated by Chief Minister, Sh. Manohar Lal while presiding over a high level review meeting with all the Cabinet and State Ministers, Vidhan Sabha Speaker, Deputy Speaker and Administrative Secretaries of various departments held here today regarding the preventive measures adopted by the State Government for the containment of virus spread in Haryana.During the meeting the Chief Minister also sought suggestions and feedback from the Cabinet and State Ministers, Vidhan Sabha Speaker, Deputy Speaker who have been assigned the responsibility of coordinating and monitoring the COVID management measures especially in relation to health infrastructure and availability of medicines in the districts assigned to them. Wherein they shared the present situation of arrangements made for tackling COVID-19 in their respective districts.

During the meeting the Chief Minister said that adequate medical facilities have been made available in both Urban and Rural areas to combat this Pandemic. He said that as now the virus has started spreading its wings in the rural areas too; therefore special attention needs to be paid to the rural areas. Besides this, special isolation kits designed for COVID-19 patients undergoing treatment will be provided to every home isolated patient in rural area.Sh. Manohar Lal said that 8,000 multidisciplinary teams have been constituted for conducting door to door health check-ups in the villages for the early detection of this disease.  These teams have been directed to closely monitor every patient and those having mild or moderate symptoms would be asked to stay in home isolation, while if the patients do not have home isolation facility then they would be made to stay in isolation centres that are being set up in the village itself, he said.“Special medical kits having necessary medicines, oximeter, thermometer and other equipments have been given to these teams which would be distributed to the patients living in home isolation,” he added.He shared that the teams will ensure that hospital admission of any person having serious COVID-19 symptoms is done on a priority basis to the nearest Community Health Centre or hospital.

Isolation Centres to be set up in every village

The Chief Minister said that Development and Panchayat Department and Health Department along with other concerned departments while working amicably  should ensure that isolation centres are set up in every village along with the availability of various medical facilities including availability of oximeters, steamers, thermometers, blood pressure checking machines and other necessary medicines and equipment related to COVID-19 therapy so that if any unexpected situation arises then the medical infrastructure can be strengthened at the village level itself.

More buses of Haryana State Transport to be transformed into hospitals

The Chief Minister informed that additional buses will also be converted into the hospitals if needed. Additionally 110 mini buses of Haryana State Transport have been converted as ambulances. Five ambulances are being sent to each district. In addition to this, more mini buses will soon be converted into ambulances and will be sent to villages which will be deputed at PHCs and CHCs, added Sh. Manohar Lal.“The decision of converting of 25 Haryana State Transport buses into hospitals has been taken to provide health facilities to the people of rural areas. These buses will be equipped with primary health facilities including oxygen etc and other required health facilities to the patients by visiting the villages,” informed the Chief Minister.

Target of conducting 60,000 daily sampling set

The Chief Minister was apprised that while taking a serious note in the surge in COVID-19 cases, the Health Department has now fixed a target of conducting around 60,000 tests per day. He said that during the rural health check-up drive, more focus would be given towards conducting Rapid Antigen along with ensuing RTPCR tests. It was further informed that soon molecular testing labs would be set-up across the State along with increasing the testing capacity of the existing labs.

Relief given in Pandemic

Sh. Manohar Lal said that the State Government has decided to give a medical assistance of Rs. 1000 per patient per day or a maximum of Rs 7000 to the COVID-19 patients who are on oxygen support or are admitted in ICU wards in the private hospitals across the State. He further informed that the patients belonging to BPL families who are undergoing treatment in private hospitals would also be given a medical assistance of Rs. 5000 per day, per patient. Besides this, an amount of up to Rs 1,000 per patient per day or up to a maximum of Rs 7,000 will be given for a maximum period of seven days, which makes to a total of Rs 42,000. This amount will be sent directly to the bank accounts of private hospitals, he added.The Chief Minister said that this financial assistance was given to those BPL families of the state who for some reason have not been registered under the ‘Ayushman Bharat Yojana’.  He said that the State Government will also give an amount of Rs. 5,000 per patient for the treatment of the BPL COVID-19 patients living in home isolation.He said that ration card holder of  AAY, BPL And OPH category would also get free of cost  5 kg wheat per family member for the months of May and June apart from the essential food items that are already distributed to these  ration card holders and in this way about 1.13 crore  people of the state would be benefited.

Oxygen availability

The Chief Minister said that a state level control room has been set up in Haryana Secretariat Chandigarh to monitor oxygen supply. Also, the supply of oxygen cylinders to the needy patients of each district undergoing treatment in home isolation has been started from May 9, 2021. For this, patients or their family members will have to register on the portal www.oxygenhry.in.A total of 4,393 applications have been received on this portal so far, out of which oxygen has been delivered to 1502 applicants and oxygen cylinders will also be delivered to 1326 applicants, informed the Chief Minister.   He said that on this portal, 363 NGOs have registered for home supply of oxygen cylinders, out of which registration of 332 NGOs has been approved so far.Sh. Manohar Lal said that the state’s oxygen quota has been increased from 156 MT to 282 MT. Around 240 metric tonnes of oxygen is coming daily from six different places including Rourkela, Angul, Jamshedpur, Panipat, Hisar and Roorkee. He said that oxygen production based on PSA technology has commenced at six plants in the State.

Rates of beds and other facilities being given to COVID-19 patients in private hospitals capped

Sh. Manohar Lal said that the rates of beds and other facilities have been fixed for COVID-19 patients undergoing treatment in private hospitals of the State.  The Government has fixed rate of Rs. 10,000 for isolation beds in NABH and JCI accredited hospitals, Rs. 15,000 for ICU beds without ventilators and Rs. 18,000 per day for ICU beds with ventilators.  Similarly, in non-NABH accredited hospitals, the rates have been fixed at Rs. 8,000 for isolation beds, Rs. 13,000 for ICU beds without ventilators and Rs. 15,000 per day for ICU beds with ventilators, he informed.