Himachal Pradesh chief minister Jai Ram Thakur on Thursday directed all the Deputy Commissioners to focus on contact tracing especially in the rural areas to curb the recent spike in Covid cases in the state.

After a virtual meeting with Deputy Commissioners and Superintendents of Police from Shimla to review the Covid situation, Thakur said the number of active cases of Coronavirus had increased to around 2700 in the state.

“It is a matter of concern that the cases have increased in a very short period. Most of these cases have been reported from the rural areas whereas there are very few cases in the urban areas including major tourist places which indicate that there has been no impact of tourist flow on Covid cases,” he added.

He stated that social gatherings, marriage functions, feasts etc were the main reasons behind the spread of this pandemic.

There were adequate oxygenated general beds, oxygen concentrators, testing kits and ventilators and the work on setting up of 28 additional PSA plants was in progress.

The work on eight PSA plants had already been completed and ten more PSA plants would be completed by 31 August 2021, the CM said.

He directed the district administrations of Kullu, Mandi, Shimla, Chamba and Kinnaur to make provision for testing of labourers keeping in view the ongoing apple season in various parts of these districts.

“The state government will soon consider imposing further restrictions and reopening of schools to check further spread of Covid.

The state has performed well in vaccination drives with zero percent wastage. However, there is a need to intensify the vaccination drive as this is the strongest measure to contain this virus.

Besides, Hamirpur, Kullu, Bilaspur, Kinnaur and Lahaul-Spiti districts have already completed the target of administering the first dose to all and a target has been fixed to vaccinate all persons above the age of 18 years within 10 days,” he added.

He added that 29 per cent of people had taken the second dose in the state and by November 2021, all the people of the state will be given the vaccine.

He directed the Deputy Commissioners to monitor civil and electrical works for establishing PSA plants so that this facility could be made available to patients at the earliest.

Funds and manpower would be increased for the Police department for strengthening the mechanism of checking at the borders and other areas, he added.

He also stressed that the districts should focus on the maintenance of roads and preparation for smooth plying of vehicles during the apple season.

Chief secretary Ram Subhag Singh directed the districts that keeping in view the rise in Covid cases in rural areas, panchayats and Sub Divisional level teams should be made more active and there was also a need for micro-planning.

A Covid Officer should be deployed on 10-12 panchayats for monitoring of Covid cases in these panchayats, he added.