Don’t be carried away by rumours, says Pondy CM

Taking to micro-blogging site Twitter, Narayanasamy said,  “There are certain people wantonly spreading rumours about the coronavirus. People here should not be panic or carried away by mischievous WhatsApp messages. Please follow official instructions only,” Narayanasamy said.

Meanwhile, an official release said the Chief Minister urged the public not to visit his office to meet him for their various issues as it will help the spread of the coronavirus disease. In view of the extra-ordinary situation, people could forward their grievances to the WhatsApp number 93453 75060, the release said. This arrangement will be there till March 31.

The government is taking all steps to contain the spread of the disease. Since mass gathering is one of the main reasons for the spread of the virus, people are requested to avoid such gatherings and as a precautionary measure, such places where the gatherings happened were closed in Puducherry, the release said.

Narayanasamy requested the people to avoid social gatherings till March 31 and help prevent the spread of the disease and cooperate with the government in its efforts, it added.

Meanwhile, the Puducherry Central Prison has decided not to allow relatives to meet prisoners. According to a release from the Jail Department on Saturday, this follows an instruction from the Ministry of Home Affairs.The jail administration has requested the National Informatics Centre (NIC)  to implement e-Mukalat system to enable the family and relatives of prisoners to meet them through video conferencing via online registration. After the online registration, a link will be sent to the visitor which will enable them to connect to video conferencing at the jail and talk to the jail inmate online. The facility will be available from March 23.

The timing of video conferencing will be from 9 to 11 am and 2 to 4 pm. It will be on Monday, Wednesday and Friday for undertrial prisoners and Tuesday and Thursday for convicted prisoners.

Advocates can also contact their inmates through the facility on all working days provided they submit their application before two days. During this period, 12 jail inmates can talk to their relatives/advocates for 10 minutes a day, the release said.

Refuting reports circulating on the social media that Jipmer has admitted a coronavirus positive case patient, It said on Saturday that these were quite incorrect.

A press release from Jipmer said it is s committed to providing all possible diagnostic, therapeutic and other support in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic.

To tackle the pandemic,  necessary facilities have been created and healthcare personnel have been trained, as per the standards prescribed by the Central government.

In addition, several measures and restrictions have been put in place to avoid overcrowding and spread of infection, as per the Union government guidelines.

Jipmer is a designated testing centre for COVID-19 symptoms and all the suspected patients who have been tested in the Institute till the evening of March 20, 2020, have been negative, the release said.

Further, some of these reports carried purported patients’ photographs, name and address. Everyone is hereby reminded that privacy is a basic right of every individual. Even more importantly, patient confidentiality is an important principle in medical ethics and is considered as a sacrosanct right.

The Institute and its staff are committed to ensuring that the identity of the patients and their test results are not made available to anyone other than the treating medical team. Others are also requested to respect these principles, the release added.