Chandigarh, Aug 6 (IANS): Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Thursday urged the COVID-19 recovered people to motivate patients suffering from the disease to put up a tough fight against the pandemic.
In fact, all such survivors should encourage people not to fear, rather ensure proper precautions to prevent it, he said at a meeting of the Crisis Management Group regarding the coronavirus status in the state here.
The Chief Minister was apprised that free COVID-19 test facility has been made available in all civil hospitals. People should visit these hospitals for testing.
The sample collection toll-free numbers -- 108 and 1075 -- have been setup. Any person can call on these numbers for sample collection and after making the call, a mobile van will be sent for the sample collection.
An SMS (short message service) are being sent to the people who have recovered from the infection, so that they can come forward for the plasma donation. So far 338 people have given their consent to donate, an official statement said.
Additional Chief Secretary (Health and Family Welfare) Rajeev Arora said except in Gurugram, Faridabad, Sonipat and Rewari districts, the number of COVID-19 positive patients in other districts is under control.
The Chief Minister directed the officers that at least one COVID-19 testing lab should be opened in each district, where testing should be conducted through RT-PCR (reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction) method instead of antigen testing.
Additional Chief Secretary (Medical Education Research) Alok Nigam said there are 16 COVID-19 testing labs, out of which 11 are government and five labs have been set up in private hospitals. Besides, 10 more labs will be opened soon.
Tele-ICU beds have also been provided at ESI Lab of Gurugram and Faridabad, he said.
The Chief Minister directed the officers that free pick-and-drop ambulance facility should be provided to the patients who need to be tested after recovering from COVID-19 or before.
Khattar was apprised that under the inter-state transport services about 150 buses of Haryana Roadways are being run in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. The buses are plying with a number of 30 passengers. The number of commuters has exceeded 1.50 lakh per day.
Director General of Police Manoj Yadava said the rate of policemen getting the infection is lesser compared to other states.
He said 587 policemen have been found positive, which is 1.14 percent of the total force and the police recovery rate is 65 per cent. So far three policemen have died from the virus.