PUNJAB NOT TO DELINEATE RED, ORANGE OR GREEN ZONES

CHANDIGARH: Punjab health minister Balbir Singh Sidhu on Tuesday said the state has decided to delineate only the containment zones to curb the spread of Covid-19 pandemic and not red, orange and green zones as earlier.

Containment zone is an area around epicentre of 15 cases or more in a village/ward. It can also be a small group of adjacent villages/wards.

In a statement, the minister said that period of containment will be of minimum 14 days. “If in a week, there is no new case or only one new case, the area will be opened. Otherwise period of containment will be extended by one week at a time,” he said.

78% COVID PATIENTS CURED

Sidhu also said Punjab has become the leading state in the country to battle coronavirus by achieving 78% recovery rate of Covid-19 patients.

He said that out of 1,980 patients, 1,557 cases have been cured.

The minister said ‘Risk Stratified Random Sampling’ will be done (in case of frequent travellers, front line workers, people with co-morbidity and people living in densely populated areas etc) across the state and focus kept on high risk areas and high risk individuals to further prevent the spread of coronavirus. Instructions have been issued to civil surgeons in this regard.

He said that 1,252 of the total 4,218 Nanded-returnees tested positive and all of them have been declared cured and sent to their homes.

‘RISK STRATIFIED