Chandigarh: The Haryana government on Thursday announced to pay double salary to doctors, nurses, paramedical staff and others who are at the forefront of the fight against coronavirus.
Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar made the announcement after a meeting with civil surgeons, Indian Medical Association chiefs from various districts in the state, district ayurvedic officers and others through video conferencing.
All those connected in this fight against coronavirus -- be it doctors, nurses, paramedical staff, class IV staff, ambulance staff, testing lab staff, their salary will be doubled, he said.
Till the time the coronavirus period lasts, all the staffers who are directly involved in treatment or taking care of COVID-19 patients, their salary will be doubled, he said.
Earlier, Khattar had announced that doctors, nurses, paramedics and other staff would get ex gratia benefits of Rs 50 lakh, Rs 30 lakh, Rs 20 lakh and Rs 10 lakh, respectively if they were not covered under the new insurance cover announced by the Centre.
Describing the doctors as next to god, the chief minister said they are fighting this battle like soldiers and risking their lives to save humanity.
Assuring people that everyone involved in the fight against COVID-19 was doing their best, he said, this is not the time to fear, but to fill everyone with 'josh' (high spirit). We have to work as a team, not only health officials but those from police, food and supplies, panchayati raj department, volunteers, all are together in this fight.
Haryana has so far reported 154 coronavirus cases with two deaths.
The state's Home Minister Anil Vij said everyone was together in this war against virus.
"Our war heroes or corona warriors are fighting this battle with full might. We will win this battle," he said.
He said the spike in coronavirus cases was due to a large number of Tablighi Jamaat members testing positive.
"We want to assure the people of Haryana that we will succeed in our fight against the virus. It is the result of our strict vigil and management that we have cases under control despite a large number of people returning from abroad in recent times. Had there not been a spike in cases due to Tablighi Jamaat members, we would have controlled it effectively," Vij said.
Those who came from abroad numbered more than 15,000. In Haryana, there are 134 active coronavirus patients, out of which 106 are the Tablighi Jamaat members, the home minister said.
Vij said a decision was taken that all coronavirus patients will be treated in 14 COVID-19 dedicated facilities.
He said initially there were some difficulties pertaining to availability of personal protective equipment, but now sufficient PPEs, N-95 masks, triple layer masks, ventilators, testing labs, and drugs were available.
Health Secretary Rajeev Arora said over the next few days reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing will be carried out and in non-affected districts 125 such samples per district will be taken, while in worst affected districts like Faridabad, Gurugram, Palwal and Nuh, 450 samples will be collected.
By April 14, Haryana intends to collect nearly Rs 6,500 samples, he said.
Besides, rapid diagnostic kits will be used in hotspots where more than 15 cases have been reported.
Arora informed that containment zones have been declared at various places across the state, including 36 villages in Nuh, 9 in Palwal, three villages and colonies of Sonipat, 13 in Faridabad, one in Charkhi Dadri and three in Panchkula.
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