Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Saturday said dedicated vehicles would be provided in identified Community Health Centres to transport Covid patients under home isolation to health institutions for treatment, if required.

After a meeting with senior government officers, Thakur said it had been observed that the Covid patients in home isolation face difficulty in getting a proper vehicle for transportation to hospital if they required specialised treatment.

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“These vehicles would be fitted with a fiberglass to separate the driver cabin from the rear seat and the service will facilitate the patients in the state, especially in rural areas.

Two vehicles would be provided in every such institution to facilitate the patients and in addition to this, as many as 30 ambulances have been added from the districts to supplement the emergency services,” he added.

He said walk-in-kiosk had been placed in a few places in the state to collect the samples of the people.

He asked the officers to ensure wide publicity of the same so that the general public could derive benefit of the same and said effective mechanisms be evolved to ensure atleast one telephone call of a doctor to a patient under treatment at home to enquire about their health.

“This would not only help in effective information about the health parameters of the patients, but also help in boosting the morale of the patients.

Besides, the employees of Chief Minister Helpline1100 have been to make phone calls to Covid-19 positive patients to boost their morale to fight the virus and to ensure their wellbeing,” he said. The Chief Minister further stated that there was no dearth of dedicated Covid beds in the state and oxygen cylinders/ facilities were also available in sufficient numbers.

He directed for strictly implementing the decision of not allowing more than 50 persons in any social function and said the government has increased the Covid testing to ensure effective tracking of the patients and to avoid any further spread of the virus.

“As many as 96,657 and 1,35,100 tests were done during the month of October and November as compared to 31,035 and 42,331 tests done during the month of April and May respectively.

As many as 29,176 tests have been done till date during the month of December,” he added.

He added all the Covid wards must have adequate arrangement of hot water, steamers to facilitate the patients and special care must be taken to ensure clean toilets for the patients.