Punjab registers lowest Tobacco use prevalence as per NFHS-5: Soni
Several studies have shown that it could make a person more vulnerable to the novel coronavirus diseases, he added.
Giving a clarion call to people to join dengue control efforts, Punjab deputy chief minister OP Soni, who also holds the portfolio of health, on Thursday asked people to observe ‘dry-day’ in the state every Sunday.
“To check the surge of dengue, it is mandatory that people clean all sorts of water containers at least once a week and break the larva breeding cycle,” he said while reviewing the status of dengue spread and the control measures put in place, in a virtual meeting with all the civil surgeons and the epidemiologists of the state.
Soni informed twelve lakh eighty thousand six hundred and forty-five (12,80645) households have been inspected till now and mosquito breeding was seen in 21,683 households.
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“So, it is mandatory that people check water accumulation in their houses,” he said. In order to involve maximum people in observance of dry-day it is necessary to change the dry-day observance from Friday to Sunday because it is easier for working people to spare time for cleanliness on weekends,” he said.
“This will give breeding inspection teams access to a greater number of households since more people would be at home to facilitate breeding inspection as compared to any other day of the week,” the minister added.
In the wake of the rising number of dengue cases, Soni said, “We have intensified Dengue control measures. Larva breeding inspection has been stepped up; strength of breeding checkers has been increased almost twofold”.
He said 220 new breeding checkers have been roped in to support the existing 480 breeding checkers. The deployment of the number of additional breeding checkers per district has been done in proportion to the magnitude of dengue spread and the geographical area of the district, said Soni.
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