Chandigarh: A Covid-19 curfew with almost zero exemptions. More than 40,000 police personnel deployed across the state to ensure strict compliance. As many as 580 people booked for violating the lockdown. An app for quick information about the disease and prompts about self-quarantine. A well-oiled system that taps the delivery network of food giants Swiggy and Zomato to bring groceries and medicines to each resident’s door. An aggressive search to track down everyone who came in contact with the state’s coronavirus patients.
The Congress-led Punjab government under Captain Amarinder Singh has launched an all-out offensive against the Covid-19 pandemic that has even left the opposition Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) impressed.
The state’s urgency has been fuelled by the flurry of foreign arrivals in Punjab, which is known to have a large population of NRIs. Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said in a statement Tuesday that 97,000 people had arrived from abroad since January, out of which 30,000 were self-quarantined. Most of these were believed to be NRIs and travellers returning from coronavirus-affected nations like Italy.
“Such a huge number of persons coming into Punjab puts the state in a situation where the outbreak could have the worst consequences in the country,” told health minister Balbir Singh Sidhu Thursday. He added that the Punjab government had demanded Rs 150 crore from the central government to deal with the situation.
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Tracing suspected patients
Punjab was among the first few states to have notified fresh regulations under the Epidemic Diseases Act 1897 to combat the pandemic, with the cabinet approving these regulations on 2 March. By the first week of March, the government had also put in place a group of ministers to monitor the spread of the disease in the state.
The group of ministers promptly decided to curtail the movement of buses, and also announced measures to reduce the number of people who could gather at one place.
In early, March the state government also launched an app — Cova, short for coronavirus alert — to give information about the disease as well as prompt users to examine their risk of infection.
Punjab’s first coronavirus case was reported on 9 March, a man returning from Italy with his family who was subsequently admitted to the government medical college in Amritsar. His family tested negative for the infection and he was himself discharged after treatment Thursday.
Less than nine days later, Punjab recorded its first coronavirus death, a 70-year-old preacher named Baldev Singh from Nawanshahar who had just returned from Germany and Italy after a 16-day trip with two others for a religious congregation.
While the trio was asymptomatic when subjected to thermal testing at the airport upon their return on 7 March, they were advised to self-quarantine. But state government officials say the trio defied the advisory and roamed around freely.
Singh even attended the hola mohalla festival in Ropar, one of the largest religious congregations in Punjab that was held from 10 to 12 March.
Singh, a patient of diabetes and hypertension, was out and about until the day before his death. He wasn’t diagnosed until after his death from a cardiac arrest on 18 March. The two people he was travelling with, including a dera chief, subsequently tested positive too.
This death India’s fourth at the time made the Punjab government sit up and launch an immediate search for all the people Singh may have come in contact with.
According to health officials, this one patient may have put hundreds at risk. By Thursday, the number of coronavirus cases in Punjab stood at 33. Health officials said at least 23 of these were directly or indirectly related to Singh.
A senior health official said at least 150 primary and secondary contacts of Singh and his fellow travellers had been traced. At least 15 villages across four districts, where these people were traced, have been completely sealed.
Announcements are being made in villages and towns where the trio travelled, asking residents to come out with information about who all they met.
The intelligence wing of Punjab Police has also been engaged to try and reconstruct their local movement. A special team headed by a senior IAS officer is, meanwhile, trawling camera footage from the hola mohalla festival.
“We have to make sure that not a single contact of his is left untested,” said a senior doctor working with the epidemic team.
While the search continues for all the people they came in contact with, health officials said they had more or less tracked the contacts of most of the state’s other coronavirus patients.
A strict curfew
Captain Amarinder Singh was the first chief minister to impose a full-fledged curfew, putting the state on lockdown Monday, two days before the national-level restrictions kicked in.
Like many other states, Amarinder had first tried to impose social distancing through a lockdown with several exemptions for essential services like groceries, dairy etc, starting Monday morning. However, as it became clear that adherence was low, Amarinder called a meeting of his most senior officers and decided to impose a curfew by Monday afternoon.
The union territory of Chandigarh, the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana, followed suit.
There were no exemptions to the curfew, with police initially using mild force on those venturing outside their houses. After viral videos of Punjab Police punishing violators drew criticism, the chief minister Thursday issued a press statement directing the police brass to ensure nobody is beaten up or misbehaved with.
By Thursday evening, more than 580 cases had been registered against those allegedly found to be in violation of the curfew. More than 40,000 police personnel have been deployed across the state to ensure strict compliance of the curfew orders.
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Home delivery
Since there are no exemptions in the curfew timings, the chief minister has promised residents that all items of essential need will be delivered at home by the district administration through dedicated teams.
Special helpline numbers have been communicated to residents for any emergency requirements during the curfew, and the state has also tied up with private food delivery companies like Swiggy and Zomato to ensure manpower and reduce time lag between orders and delivery.
Apart from this, police distributed 1.5 lakh dry food packets to the poor and homeless in 36 hours, DGP Dinkar Gupta said Thursday evening. He added that police teams were also coordinating with local gurdwaras to organise langars (Sikh community kitchens), so the food prepared could then be distributed in packets in different areas.
Relief measures
On Thursday, the Modi government announced a series of relief measures to ease the impact of the lockdown on poor households. Amarinder had taken similar steps the day curfew was imposed.
A Rs 20 crore corpus has been sanctioned from the CM’s relief fund, and put at the disposal of deputy commissioners to help those in need of food, shelter and medicines.
The due date of all taxes under the Punjab Motor Vehicles Taxation Act was extended by one month to 30 April 30.
The CM also announced that the cooperation department will waive, for two months (March-April), penal interest on crop loans taken from central cooperative banks and primary agriculture cooperative societies.
The labour department was directed to provide one-time financial assistance of Rs 3,000 to 3.18 lakh registered construction workers through direct benefit transfer in their bank accounts, involving an expenditure of approximately Rs 96 crore.
The local government department was also asked to defer the due date for the payment of water and sewerage bills by one month, besides extending the amnesty scheme on property tax until 31 May.
The due date for payment of all domestic, commercial and small industrial consumers with electricity bills upto Rs 10,000 per month/bimonthly was extended until 15 April without any late charge, a move that is expected to benefit 35 lakh subscribers.
On Thursday, the chief minister also announced that his government would distribute 10 lakh dry ration packages to the poor, including daily wagers and labour in the unorganised sector who were unable to continue making a living because of the curfew. Every packet of dry rations will include 10 kg of atta, 2 kg of dal and 2 kg of sugar.
Batting for more testing
Amarinder has also been batting for more government and private testing facilities for Covid-19. On Monday, state health minister Balbir Singh Sidhu suggested that all the people who had arrived in Punjab since January be tested for the virus.
The health minister said they needed the government of India’s approval to allow asymptomatic passengers to be tested.
The move was welcomed amid reports suggesting India’s testing rates were low.
Opposition backs efforts
The chief minister’s efforts have been applauded by the SAD, with party chief Sukhbir Singh Badal offering the support of his cadres through a series of tweets Monday.
.@Akali_Dal_ completely supports the steps taken by the Prime Minister @narendramodi ji for the security of the country and @capt_amarinder for Punjab. /3#CoronavirusPandemic #FightagainstCoronavirus #COVID19
— Sukhbir Singh Badal (@officeofssbadal) March 23, 2020
The chief minister’s battle has also earned the support of the Akal Takht, the highest temporal body of the Sikhs, with the jathedar issuing a message on 22 March for the community to get together and help humanity.
CM in constant touch with residents
The chief minister has also been constantly addressing the people of Punjab to inform them about his actions, as also the logic behind it.
Since 14 March, he has addressed Punjab residents four times.
While imposing the curfew on 23 March, he explained in a video message why he was forced to take this decision. In another message issued Tuesday, he said the curfew won’t be relaxed and talked about the creation of a framework for home delivery of essential items. He sent out another video message Thursday, informing the public about the efforts being made. He also urged patience through this period.
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