Punjab govt gives 3-month extension to retiring doctors and specialists as COVID-19 cases increase rapidly

With fatalities due to the deadly COVID-19 going up rapidly across the state, Punjab Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh on Monday announced a three-month extension for all retiring doctors and specialists under 60 years of age, and also asked the Chief Secretary to expedite the process of recruitment of technicians and lab assistants for coping with the exponential demand in view of the increasing number of COVID-19 cases.

The state Cabinet had earlier given extension to these doctors in job till September 30, which has now been extended till December 31, 2020, said the Chief Minister.

During a virtual review of the COVID-19 situation with top officials and health experts, the Chief Minister pointed out that the Health Department was already supporting the Government Medical Colleges with specialist manpower pending recruitment by the Medical Education Department. Special relaxation has been given by the Finance Department to enable colleges to hire other manpower, he said.

The Chief Minister also directed formation of committees, under the respective DCs, for distribution of food packets to poor families under home isolation/quarantine, in order to encourage testing, as such families generally refrained from getting themselves tested for COVID-19 for fear of losing their meagre earnings.

Capt. Amarinder Singh also announced steps to ease the stress of COVID-19 patients in hospitals and at homes. It has been decided that government hospitals will now permit serious COVID-19patients with special dietary requirements to be provided home food if they wish. To alleviate the psychological stress of serious patients in isolation in hospitals, and of their family members, the government will provide some equipment in these wards to enable video calls between patients and their attendants.

The CM has directed all government labs to start providing the Cycle Threshold (CT) value of an RT-PCR test as it can give useful information to the doctors treating a COVID-19 patient. To ensure regular monitoring the COVID-19 patients in home isolation, especially above 40 years of age, Capt Amarinder Singh asked the Health Department to put in place a system of ensuring their clinical progress to check sudden deterioration. Covid Patient Tracking Officers have been appointed in each district to ensure such patients receive due care, he said.