‘Unable to get treatment in Delhi, people suspecting COVID-19 infection heading to Punjab’

Unable to get treatment in the national Capital, people suspecting COVID-19 infection have reportedly started heading to Punjab where healthcare facilities are perceived to be better.

Punjab has started receiving an influx of people suspecting contact with COVID-19 patients, and a number of symptomatic persons are visiting state hospitals to get tested after failing to get treatment in Delhi.

Punjab Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu, in a press statement issued on Saturday, said that despite claiming world class health facilities, Delhi Government was failing to conduct COVID-19 test of even symptomatic persons in government hospitals.

About 97 persons from Delhi have tested positive over the last one month, following which treatment was being providing to them by Punjab government, said Sidhu. He added that to avoid any escalation in the situation, he had already directed civil surgeons to keep a close watch on the state’s borders so as to ensure screening of every person coming from Delhi.

He said that it is a matter of concern that a large number of symptomatic people are moving from Delhi to Punjab to avail free treatment facilities. He said that it has come to light that due to the massive outbreak of COVID-19 in the national Capital, people were battling to get tested as well as for getting beds in government hospitals.

He said that it was shocking to even imagine the present critical situation of Delhi where common people were crying for help and moving from one hospital to another hospital just to give samples for the test but there was nobody from the government to address their problems and complaints.

The minister said that hundreds of videos of such incidents are viral on social media which clearly expose the inadequate arrangements made by Delhi Government to deal with COVID-19 patients.

Highlighting the current scenario in Punjab, Sidhu said that about 80 percent of COVID-9 patients in Punjab were found asymptomatic and recovery rate of Punjab was more than percent 90 percent with 99.9 percent contact tracing of all COVID-19 patients.

The minister said that as this virus was highly infectious, it spreads very rapidly and Punjab government under the leadership of CM Captain Amarinder Singh had responded quickly,shutting down bus services and imposing a curfew from 23 March, making it the first state in the country to do so. Deputy Commissioners were directed to tackle the disease and provided adequate funds to deal with the crisis.

Now, to prevent a situation like that in Delhi, the state Health department had, on the directive of the Chief Minister, commenced house to house screening under which its teams were visiting every house in the state to collect the data of every person having COVID-19 symptoms, Sidhu said.

In order to ensure strict compliance of guidelines regarding home quarantine, instructions have been already issued to all civil surgeons to conduct thorough checking of passengers, especially those coming from affected states and countries so as to contain the spread among the local population. Challans are being issued and legal actions are being taken against violators, the minister said.