Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Thursday expressed concern over the recent spike in Coronavirus cases in the state and urged the people to adopt Covid appropriate behaviour.

He made these remarks while virtually inaugurating six PSA plants at Medical College Chamba, Civil Hospital Chowari, Chamba, DDU Shimla, KNH Shimla, Regional Hospital Rampur and Civil Hospital Rohru at a cost of Rs 6.60 crore from Peterhoff, Shimla today. Out of these six plants, five have been established through PM CAREs and one through CSR.

“The number of cases of Covid-19 was increasing at a sharp pace which was a matter of concern,” he said while urging the people to ensure Covid appropriate behaviour as even today prevention was better than cure.

He stated that the state government has imposed few restrictions to check the spread of the virus. The state government was well aware of the situation and was ready to meet any eventuality.

“During the last three days, more than two lakh children in the age group of 15 to 18 years have been vaccinated in the state,” he added.

He expressed hope that the State would also complete the vaccination of all eligible children at a fast pace and again become the first state in the country to achieve this milestone.

It is worth mentioning here that the number of Covid-19 cases had almost tripled to 1,216 as of 5 January from 474 cases on 1 January with 137, 260, and 374 cases reported in the state on 3rd, 4th, and 5th January respectively.

The Chief Minister also launched three new health programs under the National Health Mission on the occasion.

Under Mission Drishti, the eyes of children of classes VI to XII would be examined and free spectacles would be provided as per the requirement.

Under the School Health and Wellness Program under Ayushman Bharat Scheme, two teachers would be nominated as Health and Wellness Ambassadors from each school and would be trained on 11 aspects related to adolescent health.  These ambassadors would further prepare at least two students of each class as Health and Wellness Messengers.

At present, this program was being started in 3017 schools in six districts of Mandi, Kangra, Bilaspur, Una, Chamba, and Sirmaur, and later it would be extended to other districts as well.

Besides this, the National TB eradication programme was also launched by the Chief Minister, which aims to make the State T.B. free by the year 2025. He also launched the booklets regarding guidelines regarding the TB Eradication Programme and other publications of the Health Department on the occasion.