Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Thursday said the government is concerned on sharp increase in the number of Covid-19 cases in the state but at the same time, the HP government is fully prepared to meet any eventuality.

He made these remarks after the virtual meeting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on review of Covid-19 in the country with the Chief Ministers of the states, Lt Governors and Administrators of Union Territories who expressed concern over the sudden spike in the number of Covid-19 cases in most of the states of the country.

Thakur said that the state today has over 11500 bed capacity which can be expanded to 17000, in addition to 2374 dedicated beds with oxygen, 8765 Covid dedicated beds, 237 ICU beds and 1014 ventilators are available in the state.

“Himachal today has 48 PSA plants with 59.37 MT oxygen capacity, 2100 A-type cylinders, 5009 B-Type cylinders, 1112 D-type cylinders and 5723 concentrators. Besides, there is adequate stock of essential medicines such as PCM 650, PCM 500, remdesivir, dexamethasone, hydrocortisone etc. Adequate stock of consumables such as PPE kits and N-95 masks is also available in the state,” he added.

Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur directed the officers to strengthen the mechanism of home isolation as most of the patients in the state were under home isolation.

He also directed them to make best possible arrangements for transportation of patients from home to health institutions so that they could be provided immediate treatment.

Jai Ram Thakur stated that the state has already achieved the target of 100 per cent vaccination of 15-18 years age group and now the Himachal Pradesh government was striving to achieve the target of cent per cent precaution dose for health care workers, frontline workers and senior citizens.

Greater stress was being laid on testing, tracking, treating and ‘teekakaran’(vaccination), he added.

In the virtual meeting, Prime Minister also felt the need not to panic from this pandemic and be alert. Greater stress must be laid on containing this pandemic as we succeed in checking this virus, the more we will be at ease, he added.

State Health Minister Rajiv Saizal, Chief Secretary Ram Subhag Singh, Principal Secretary Revenue Onkar Sharma, Principal Secretary Bharat Khera, Mission Director National Health Mission Hemraj Bairwa, Special Secretary Sudesh Mokhta and other officers attended the meeting.