'Rath-yatra' to mark HP's 50th yr cancelled
Shimla: With active Covid cases rising to exceed 3800-mark and UK strain detected at Solan, one of the districts bordering Punjab, Himachal Pradesh on Tuesday imposed more restrictions to deal with alarming situations in the state.
Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur once again ruled out lockdown in the state but said some more restrictions are likely in the coming days to stop the pandemic spreading to the community level and villages.
This could be because of elections to four Municipal Corporations at Solan, Mandi, Palampur and Dharamshala slated for April 7 as the BJP has high stakes in the poll. The outcome of these polls will have a direct bearing on the government's popularity graph.
Thus, the government is not ready to impose harsh measures.
On Tuesday, at a high level meeting, which Thakur chaired, the state government decided to postpone the Swarnim Himachal Rath Yatra –which was aimed to be started on April 15, 2021 on the occasion of 'Himachal Day' as a part of Golden Jubilee of statehood of Himachal Pradesh.
"The decision to re-organize Himachal Swarnim Rath Yatra will be taken after the situation normalizes," Chief Minister said
Other important restrictions imposed included limiting the gatherings in the marriage ceremony to 50 people indoors and maximum 200 outdoors till further orders. Only 50 persons would be allowed to attend the funeral.
Thakur directed the health department to take effective steps for enhancing the bed capacity in the government hospitals so that if the Corona cases rise, the infected people could be provided with better treatment facilities.
He also asked to contact private hospitals of the State for making alternative arrangements of beds for Corona patients.
Chief Minister was briefed by the Health secretary Amitabh Awasthi about the department having got fully geared up to check the spread of this virus.
"There was no shortage of oxygen cylinders, vaccine, PPE kits, face masks and hand sanitizers. Very soon, extra beds would be made available in Ner Chowk Medical College for Covid patients and a newly passed batch of 28 nurses would be deployed in Nahan Medical College," he said.
He said that alternative bed capacity would also be enhanced in Hamirpur and Nahan Medical colleges.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister said that the districts have been directed to take up vaccination and testing for Covid-19 in a campaign mode besides contacting the positive cases in home isolation so that if required, they could be advised for medical treatment in the hospitals.
The emphasis has also been laid on screening the people on border areas but unlike some of the states, Himachal Pradesh has not made RT-PCR test mandatory for those coming to the state fearing reaction from the hoteliers and tourism industry.
Awasthi further informed about the Coronavirus situation and said that presently there were 3828 active Corona cases in the state.
