(G.N.S) Dt. 8
Ahmedabad/Gandhinagar
In the wake of exodus of thousands of migrant workers who are leaving the state, the Gujarat cabinet has approved a new ordinance where existing stringent labour laws will be liberalized to ensure smooth functioning of industries in the post lockdown period.
A flag march by local police, Rapid Action Force (RAF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF),
*Coronavirus tightened its grip on Gujarat as the state on Thursday added 388 new positive cases, taking the state’s tally to 7,013.
*Gujarat health department officials said that Ahmedabad recorded 23 out of 29 deaths recorded in 24 hours. Four patients in Surat and one patient each in Banaskantha and Mehsana district also succumbed to viral infection.
*In order to ensure that the Covid-affected people get hospitals and asymptomatic patients have sufficient quarantine facilities the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation took over eight private hospitals with a capacity of 800 beds and also 60 hotels with a capacity of 3,000 rooms.
*Cadila Pharmaceuticals has shut its factory in Dholka after as many as 26 workers tested positive for Covid-19. This is perhaps the first instance in Gujarat where a pharmaceuticals company has been forced to shut operations due to workers being infected with the novel coronavirus.
*The seven companies of paramilitary forces sent to Gujarat were deployed in the worst Covid-19 affected containment areas of Ahmedabad and Surat, to augment security measures. These companies have mainly been deployed in containment areas of walled city and some ‘red zone’ areas.
*The district administration in Saurashtra is jittery fearing import of coronavirus cases into the district with the permission for intrastate travel granted by the state government. Jamnagar, which had only one Covid case till now reported five new cases in the past one week.
*Devbhumi Dwarka district also reported its first instances of infection – all due to influx of people from highly infected zones.
The districts of Saurashtra including Amreli, Jamnagar, Rajkot and Surendranagar are facing huge influx of migrants in the past couple of days, a majority of them coming in from Ahmedabad and Surat, the two most infected cities in the state.
*Jamnagar district collector, Ravi Shankar, passed an order to requisite all government, semi-government and private schools to turn them into quarantine centres. He also ordered requisition of all halls run by various communities, besides government and private educational hostels equipped with available facility.
Mr Shankar said, “The situation is very tough. Community spread in Jamnagar has not started yet, but once these outsiders start pouring in, in huge numbers, then there is a bigger threat of community spread.”
He further said that the government opened the district borders for those who were stranded because of the lockdown, but we have noticed that many people have shifted back to Jamnagar, bag and baggage.
In the wake of the intrastate travel order, various districts have expressed their apprehensions that the spread of Covid in villages at the community level will make it extremely difficult to handle as there is not enough medical facility available at the taluka level to combat the pandemic situation.
*Surendrangar district collector K Rajesh, meanwhile, is worried about illegal entrants. “A bank employee, who entered illegally in Malvan area, showed symptoms. We had to test 19 people who came in his contact and ultimately waste limited resources for the negligence of one person,” he lamented.
If that’s not all, authorities in Saurashtra are also facing severe staff crunch while handling the massive influx. A few officers have voiced their opinions that like in election time, government should issue orders to rope in central government staff, all school teachers for help.
