Haryana gets battle ready for virus outbreak
INVOKES EPIDEMIC DISEASE ACT 298 isolation wards with 1,328 beds have been set up in government and private hospitals across the state
CHANDIGARH: The Haryana government on Thursday geared up to tackle the contagious coronavirus disease (Covid-19) after declaring it an epidemic.
According to the state health department, 44 samples of suspected cases were sent for tests till Thursday. Of them, 40 tested negative for coronavirus, while reports of four people — three from Gurgaon and one from Panchkula – are awaited.
“Covid-19 has been declared an epidemic in Haryana,” state health minister Anil Vij tweeted.
Talking to HT, Vij said, “It’s a measure taken by the state government to legally enforce steps, including quarantine of suspects to prevent spread of coronavirus or shut down schools etc. It does not mean that there is a coronavirus epidemic in Haryana. We were forced to invoke the Epidemic Disease Act because 83 persons who arrived from Italy refused to get tested. Now what powers do we have, except the Act, to force them to give sample or for that matter quarantine them.”
Asked if the government planned to close cinema halls and schools as a precautionary measure, Vij said the government would review the situation in a day or two to decide on this aspect.
The World Health Organisation has declared Covid-19 a pandemic. A pandemic is the spread of a disease across a country or many countries, while an epidemic is the spread of an infectious disease in a large number of people or community at a time.
More than 298 isolation wards with 1,328 beds have been set up in government and private hospitals in the state to deal with any contingency.
FLU CORNERS IN ALL HOSPITALS
Rohtak’s Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS) has been designated as the tertiary care centre for the treatment of critical patients.
The Haryana Epidemic Disease, Covid-19 Regulations, 2020, to contain the spread of the virus comes into immediate effect and will be in place for a year.
All hospitals in the state have been directed to set up flu corners for the screening of suspected coronavirus cases.
PENALTY FOR MISINFORMATION
According to the regulation, no person/institution shall use print or electronic media to spread misinformation on Covid-19. If the person does not have permission of the department of health and family welfare and is found indulging in any such activity, he/she will be punished.
No private laboratories have been authorised to take or test coronavirus samples in the state.
The government has also asked people with a travel history to coronavirus-affected countries to report to the nearest government hospital.
The Act makes it mandatory for all government and private hospitals to record the travel history of a person if he or she travelled to any country or area affected by Covid-19. In case the person has any such history in the past 14 days and is asymptomatic, he/she has to be in home quarantine for 14 days.
If a coronavirus case is reported from a village, town, ward, colony, settlement, the administration of the district concerned shall have the right to implement containment measures, including sealing of the area, barring entry and exit of population from the containment area, closure of schools, offices and banning public gatherings, besides other measures.
In case a suspected case refuses admission or isolation, the Act empowers the authorised officers to forcefully admit and isolate the suspected case for 14 days or till lab reports are received.
No suit or legal proceedings shall lie against any person for anything done or intended to be done in good faith under the Epidemic Disease Act unless proved otherwise, the notification added.
MEETING IN GURUGRAM
The Gurugram district health department held a meeting with the medical superintendents of private hospitals on adherence to the provisions under the regulation, which mentions that all hospitals, private and government, should have flu corners for screening suspected cases.
“If private or government hospital comes across a person with a travel history after February 15, who is asymptomatic or symptomatic, they will have to provide the information of all such cases,” said Dr Jaswant Singh Punia.