 "Lockdown alone no panacea to tackle coronavirus pandemic: Puducherry CM")
Puduchery Chief Minister V
Narayanasamy on Friday renewed his appeal to the people to adhere to safety norms, following a surge in COVID-19 cases in the Union Territory.
Addressing a virtual press conference here, he said the Chief Scientist of World Health Organisation, Dr Soumya Swaminathan had provided some guidelines to the territorial government, which referred to augmenting the number of sample testing and close monitoring of the people in home isolation.
The WHO official had during her recent visit to the Union Territory suggested to the administration to ramp up screening of people, the CM said, adding the guidelines would be adopted in letter and spirit.
The Chief Minister also said total lock down would be enforced on every Tuesday in the Union Territory and this would come into force from August 18.
The announcement was made following a decision taken by the State level Disaster Management Authority in this connection.
However, the CM said, "we will see the impact of the step by observing the lock down on coming Tuesday. We will also reconsider the decision after assessing the impact of lockdown."
The shutdown on Tuesdays would be observed till August 31.
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Citing the reason for having the lock down on Tuesday, the Chief Minister said the anniversary of De Jure transfer (Liberation Day) of Puducherry falls on coming Sunday and hence it is not possible to have the lockdown on that day.
Narayanasamy also contended that the lock down alone was not a panacea to fight the pandemic.
Noting that the administration was reeling under shortage of funds with the Centre remaining 'irresponsive' to repeated pleas for allocation of funds, he said, "there were also several hurdles in the administration and lack of cooperation from some sections in the government."
He did not specifically point out where the hurdles had emerged from.
Narayanasamy said the government was managing the situation from out of its own sources as health of the people "counted more for us.