Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur held a video conferencing with all the Deputy Commissioners and Superintendents of Police of the State from Shimla today to take stock of the situation in wake of curfew in the State due to outbreak of Corona epidemic in the country as well as in the State. He directed the officers to extend all possible facilities to the people kept in quarantine centres. He also asked DCs that proper social distancing must be ensured in these centres.He said that efforts should be made to identify some hotels, guest houses and Dharamshalas for keeping the people under quarantine so that they could be provided better facility. He appreciated the services being rendered by doctors, nurses, para medical staff and sanitary workers during this period of crisis. He said that it was vital to keep their morale high so that they could work with greater dedication and commitment.Jai Ram Thakur said that an Active Case Finding Campaign would be launched in the State from 1st April, 2020 under which health workers would provide information regarding symptoms of Covid-19 to the people at their door steps. He said that under this campaign every ASHA worker with two persons team will visit every house in village and gather health information of every person and would share it with the department through Google form. He said that this campaign would start from 9 AM to 4 PM every day. He said that after campaign, the suspected persons would be investigated accordingly. The Chief Minister said that the elected representatives of PRIs and Urban Local Bodies must be involved to identify those persons in their respective areas who have travelling history from outside the State or even within the State. He said that this would help the State Government to identify them and put them under home or institutional quarantine whichever was required.
He asked the Deputy Commissioners to make the home delivery system for providing essential commodities to people more effective as this would help in ensuring proper distancing among the masses. He said that in rural areas also Panchayati Raj Institutions could be involved to provide delivery of essential commodities to the people nearer to their localities. He also urged the volunteers to come forward in providing home delivery of essential items to the people.The Chief Minister said that keeping in view the situation, the Tehsildars, Naib Tehsildars, Kanungoes and patwaris due to retire this month would be given one month extension.Jai Ram Thakur said that if in any case person of the State has crossed over from other States, he should be identified and kept in surveillance and quarantined for 14 days. He said that State and District Nodal Officers had been appointed to monitor the situation. He said that awareness was being generated amongst the masses through various means of communications besides involving functionaries of PRIs and Local Bodies.The Chief Minister said that as many as 3085 persons had been kept under surveillance for corona virus in the State so far out of which 937 people had completed 28 days of surveillance period. He said that investigations of 13 persons for COVID-19 had been done today out of which 10 samples from Tanda Medical College were found negative and report of three samples collected in IGMC Shimla had also been found negative. He said that 212 persons had so far been investigated in the State for corona virus.Chief Secretary Anil Kumar Khachi assured the Chief Minister that administration would leave no stone unturned to provide people all possible help in this situation.Director General of Police S.R. Mardi said that the police must honour valid passes provided by the competent authorities and avoid un-necessary harassment of peopleAdditional Chief Secretary, Home Manoj Kumar, Additional Chief Secretary Health R.D. Dhiman, Principal Secretary Transport J.C. Sharma, Principal Secretary Revenue Onkar Sharma, Principal Secretary to CM Sanjay Kundu, Secretaries Rajneesh and Akshay Sood and Director Information and Public Relations Harbans Singh Brascon also attended the meeting.