Chandigarh: Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Friday said that as the third wave of COVID-19 has started showing its impact and there has been a rapid spike in the number of cases, the state is braced up with adequate arrangements to contain the virus spread.
"If we talk about yesterday, about 2500 new cases have been reported and the number of active cases is 8000 in the state, out of which 114 cases are of the Omicron variant. Out of 114 patients, 83 have been cured and 31 are active cases," Khattar said while addressing a press conference here today.
He said that the spreading rate of the Omicron variant is 1.5 times higher and according to experts, Omicron-led third COVID wave may peak by January 25, 2022.
The CM said that till date, more than 3.61 crore people in the State have been vaccinated, out of which more than 2.10 crore people have received the first dose and more than 1.50 crore people have received the second dose.
"The everyday testing capacity in the state has also been increased and more than 40,000 tests are being conducted on a daily basis. Along with increasing the vaccination, the testing of people would also be increased, he informed.
Khattar lashed out at Congress for making unnecessary political statements about 34 percent unemployment rate in the State based on the unrealistic report of the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) said that the actual unemployment rate in Haryana is only 6.1 percent.
"Till date a total of 65,78,311 families have been registered and the figure of registered population figure is 2,57,99,000. Of which 1.73 crore people are in the age group of 18 years to 58 years, out of which 10,59,530 persons have declared themselves unemployed", said Khattar.
He said that on the basis of these figures if the unemployment rate is calculated, then the unemployment rate of Haryana comes to only 6.1 percent. However, since Congress has a habit of spreading rumours, they are highlighting the unrealistic figure of 34 percent released by CMIE.
He said that constant work is being done towards promoting solar energy in the state as a result of which Haryana is moving at a fast pace in the field of solar energy for the last five years.
"Seven years ago not much work was done in this area. Till the year 2014, only 492 solar pumps were installed. The present government has given about 25,000 solar pump connections and the work of providing 13,800 connections is in progress. The state government has set a target of installing 50,000 solar pump sets," said the CM.