Himachal Pradesh CM directs official to strengthen quarantine facilities amid COVID crisis

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur has directed officials to strengthen the institutional quarantine facilities in every district of the state. In a video conference with Deputy Commissioners, Superintendents of Police and Chief Medical Officers of the state on Monday, the CM said that as many as 68,000 people have applied for e-pass to enter the state. Since they would be coming from red zones, institutional quarantine facilities would be required, he added.

Thakur directed Deputy Commissioners to identify an adequate number of facilities in their respective districts and to ensure the sanitisation, hygiene and other aspects related to these facilities. Each and every person entering the state should be thoroughly medically examined to determine if they are to be kept under institutional quarantine or home quarantine, he added.

He further said that institutional quarantine facilities must be created in such a manner that people willing to pay for better facilities could be provided with the same on payment. Deputy Commissioners also gave details of arrangements made by them in respective districts to facilitate people coming from across the country.

Jai Ram Thakur said that a special train from Bengaluru would reach Una on May 13 and another special train from Thivim/Margao/Karamali (Goa) would be reaching Una on May 15. He directed the DC of Una to make arrangements for their medical examination and ensure their further journey to respective districts. 

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Six New COVID-19 Cases In Himachal Pradesh 

Himachal Pradesh reported six fresh cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, taking the count to 59 in the state, officials said on Sunday. Three persons in Chamba district, two in Bilaspur and one in Kangra district have tested positive for the infection, the officials said.

All three fresh cases in Chamba are the contacts of a driver from Khad Jota panchayat in Chamba's Saloni subdivision, who had tested positive for novel coronavirus on Wednesday, they said. Bilaspur Deputy Commissioner Rajeswar Goel said two taxi drivers quarantined at Swarghat in Bilaspur district along the Himachal Pradesh-Punjab border tested positive for the infection.

They had recently ferried two families from Ahmedabad in Gujarat and Gurgaon in Haryana to their native places in Himachal Pradesh's Mandi and Kangra districts respectively, he added.

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(With Inputs from ANI)