As the country is currently facing Coronavirus crisis and is under a  21-day lockdown, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said on Tuesday, dealing with COVID-19 is like fighting a war wherein an unknown enemy is making the battle more complicated and challenging everyday.

With Punjab reporting 76 coronavirus cases and seven deaths till Tuesday morning, CM Singh said that his government is leaving no stone unturned in procuring adequate life-saving equipment, including ventilators, PPE kits, N-95 masks and expanding bed capacity of isolation wards, underlining the state’s resolve to tide over the crisis.

In news agency PTI’s e-mail interview with the Punjab CM, he told that the large number of non-resident Indian (NRI) population in the state makes it more vulnerable to COVID-19.

“The problem we are facing here in Punjab is the large number of NRIs and foreign returnees who have come to the state in the past one month or so. Tracking, tracing and following up on them is a massive task”, he said.

Earlier, CM Singh on Saturday had said those who fail to inform the authorities about their travel history will face strict action, including confiscation of their passports. During a state cabinet meeting to review the situation in Punjab, Singh said there could be no compromise and anyone found hiding their travel history from police or health department personnel would be dealt with strictly.

“We will take away their passports too,” he warned. To strengthen the state government’s efforts to check the spread of coronavirus, Singh also authorized extension for all retiring health department employees by three months, an official spokesperson had said.

Singh told in the interview that most of the 95,000 passengers who arrived through Mohali and Amritsar airports before suspension of flights and the Attari-Wagah and Dera Baba Nanak land ports have been traced.

“Subsequently, the Centre sent us a list of 55,000 people who arrived in Delhi and were quarantined. Contact tracing has also been completed in most cases, but there may be cases where people are hiding information, including their travel and contact history”, Singh said.

Talking about the state government”s preparations and measures for the frontline health workers, he told that it is procuring protective equipment for frontline workers, including doctors and other health staff, on a war footing.

“We are procuring equipment from wherever we can, but there is a shortage everywhere. We are getting indigenously made stuff speed-tested and produced. But it is not an easy job”, said CM Singh.

On the state’s preparedness on the healthcare front, Singh says the state will scale up the capacity of isolation beds to 20,000 in the next few days from the already operational 2,500 beds.

“We have already ordered 1.65 lakh PPE kits, of which nearly half have been received. Orders have also been placed for one lakh N-95 masks and 42 lakh triple layer masks, and more than half of them have been received, he says, adding private industry is also contributing by way of making PPE kits and N-95 masks,” he said.

The government hospitals in the state currently have nearly 500 ventilators, the chief minister added.

Amarinder Singh rued that the state does not have enough COVID-19 testing kits.

“And of course, there is the question of testing of people for the disease. We are told to test, test and test. But we do not have enough kits, though we are now using mobile vans for community testing in hot-spot areas. The central government has allowed rapid testing, but we need kits for that too”, he said.

Adding to the woes is the economic impact of the disease, with Punjab anticipating a hit of Rs 5,000 crore in revenue by April-end.

For generating resources to deal with the COVID-19 medical emergency on priority, Punjab Chief Minister had on Saturday ordered expenditure cuts by all government departments to meet urgent expenses needed to deal with the current crisis.

He had asked all the state departments to submit detailed proposals, by 8 April, on expenditure cuts to be made over the next few weeks.

“We have to save people, that should be our priority,” said the CM at the meeting of the Council of Ministers, adding that resources have to be made available to Health, Police and other concerned departments directly involved in the current battle, which threatens to be a long one.

As of now, things have not gone out of control in India, but the numbers are increasing every day. We have seen a spike (of cases) here in Punjab in the past few days, he says.

The chief minister says the COVID-19 crisis has hit the economy of the state with no revenue generation from VAT and other sources. Punjab was the first state in the country to clamp curfew last month.

We have no revenue sources at all right now. Our GST arrear (Rs 6,752 crore) is also pending with the Centre. My finance minister tells me that by the end of April, we would be reeling under Rs 5,000 crore in losses. This is huge, and we have no means of making up for it, he says.

The Punjab chief minister while replying to question on the Centre’s response towards the state’s demand for a financial package and refund of Goods and Services Tax (GST) arrears said, “It is unfortunate that we are yet to get a positive response from the Centre. I am sure they are doing their best, given the gravity of the situation. But frankly, it is not enough to meet the challenge. They need to pump in more funds, and release our GST arrears immediately.”

About preparations for wheat procurement, the CM says he has assured farmers that every grain would be procured, while ensuring adherence to the safety protocols.

“Harvesting and marketing will be staggered in such a manner that there will be no overcrowding at any place. We are working with Arhtiyas’ (commission agents) and sheller owners to add 3,000 sheller yards this year. Coupons will be issued to farmers so that they do not come to the Mandis at the same time,” he said.

While assessing the current situation in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, Singh, an ex-armyman, said, “It is in many ways like fighting a war with one key difference. The enemy here is unknown, we cannot see it, nor do we really know what it is like. Naturally, this makes the battle all the more difficult and challenging.”

“As of now, there is no vaccine or medicine for this. And we are hearing new things about COVID-19 every day. So it is really difficult to come out with a comprehensive strategy to fight this crisis, given that it is a continuously evolving one”, he added.