Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Guaba today directed to notify and publicize the hospitals that have been dedicated as COVID-19 hospitals and to equip them with all required necessary medical facilities.
This direction came throughvideo conference meeting with Chief Secretaries of all States and UnionTerritories wherein he asked for aggressive contact tracing and to put allthose people in isolation to control the spread.
While commending the role of health workers fightingCOVID-19, Guaba stressed on protecting these frontline warriors by taking careof their genuine needs.
Cabinet Secretary reiterated that officials should ensurethat lockdown restrictions remains effective for remaining two weeks in theentire country, to contain the spread of pandemic and emphasized on maintainingsupply chain, ensuring uninterrupted movement of essential goods and puttingstrong check on movement of migrant labors.
With regard to the measuresthat have taken to curb the rumor mongering, the meeting was apprized that theInformation & Broadcast Ministry has created a cell to burst fake newscirculating among people on coronavirus.
He asked the States/UTs to be fully prepared fordisbursement of PMGKY relief package as the funds have to be transferred intothe accounts of the beneficiaries through DBT mode. He said that more bankstaff should be allowed to attend their duties and movement passes need to beprovided to them for the purpose.
He asked the Chief Secretaries to convene SLBC meetings anddiscuss the plan of action with the Regional/Zonal heads of both Public andPrivate Banks operational in their respective states/UTs. Further, the DeputyCommissioners at district level should also take meetings with the banks tofinalize arrangements in this regard.
Cabinet Secretary also asked the States/UTs to ensure smoothdistribution of ration under PM Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana (PMGKAY) in which 80crore poor people in the country will get 5 kg wheat or rice and 1 kg ofpreferred pulses for free every month for the next three months.