The Punjab Chief Minister on September 11 announced oximeters to be made available to all citizens at an affordable cost of Rs. 514 through approved vendors in every district amid spiralling cases of COVID-19.

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The Department of Health will issue detailed guidelines in this regard within one week, the Chief Minister said during his 17th #AskCaptain Live session on Facebook. The department was purchasing the oximeters for Rs. 514 each for the health staff and these would now be made available through authorised vendors to the general public too on no-profit-no-loss basis, he added.

Responding to a Raikot resident's suggestion that the government must provide oximeters and thermometers at cheap price in every home, the CM said 50,000 COVID care kits were being distributed by his government free of cost. These kits contain oximeters and thermometers, among other essentials, he said. Assuaging the fears of a Gurdaspur resident, the Chief Minister said if he turned out to be COVID positive he would not put in hospital but will be asked to home quarantine and take care, with regular watch on his health.

Home isolation medicines are given only if required, said the CM in response to a question. Home Isolation Monitoring Team visited the home of positive patients three times in 10 days to inquire about the health conditions and also gave the necessary inputs to Health Care Giver of the patient. Pointing to the state's high deaths rates, which were attributable to late reporting at hospitals for treatment, the CM called upon the people to help him and his government in reversing the trend by not ignoring symptoms, and getting themselves tested and hospitalised in time as most of the deaths were being reported at Level 3. The conditions in hospitals had improved, said the Chief Minister, adding that a lot of money had been spent by his government to scale up the facilities and he had also asked the Ministers to visit the districts under their charge to take stock of the ground situation.