DW BUREAU / chandigarh Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Monday announced a three-month extension of services for all retiring doctors and specialists amid the spike in coronavirus cases and deaths in the state. According to an earlier Cabinet decision, these doctors were given extension till September 30. It has now been extended till December 31, the chief minister said in a statement here. He also asked the chief secretary to expedite the process of recruitment of technicians and laboratory assistants to cope with the exponential demand of medical services amid the pandemic. During a virtual meeting to review the coronavirus situation with officials and medical, health experts, Singh said the health department is already supporting government medical colleges with specialist manpower pending recruitment by the medical education department. The chief minister also directed officials to set up committees under deputy commissioners for distribution of food packets to the poor who are in home-isolation or are quarantined, to encourage testing as such families generally refrain from getting themselves tested for coronavirus out of fear of losing their livelihood. It has also been decided that government hospitals will now permit serious coronavirus patients with special dietary requirement to be provided homemade food if they want, the chief minister said. To alleviate psychological stress, the government will enable video calls between hospitalised COVID-19 patients in serious condition and their family members, Singh said.The chief minister has directed all government labs to start providing the Cycle Threshold (CT) value of an RT-PCR test as it can give useful information to doctors treating a coronavirus patient. To ensure regular monitoring of patients in home isolation, especially those above 40 years, Singh asked the health department to put in place a system of ensuring their clinical progress to check any sudden deterioration of their condition. COVID patient tracking officers have been appointed in each district to ensure that those afflicted by the viral disease receive due care, he said. Expressing concern over the delayed testing, the chief minister urged the departments concerned to aggressively reach out to people to go for testing at the first sign of coronavirus symptoms. The directions came as active cases in the state stood at 16,156 as on September 6, with a cumulative fatality rate of 2.9 per cent and deaths per million at 62. The average COVID-19 positivity for the week from August 26 to September 3 was 9.42 per cent, health secretary Hussan Lal informed the meeting, adding that tracing of contacts per infected person has increased to 4.4 per case during the August 27 ? September 3 period. Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan said COVID-19 cases and fatalities witnessed a steady increase in the past few days. The situation was being monitored on a day-to-day basis, she said. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Singh directed the state police chief to crack down on rumour-mongers spreading misinformation among people about the COVID-19 pandemic through social media. The CM asked Director General of Police Dinkar Gupta to monitor statements being issued by "anti-India operators working from abroad" and register cases against people spreading rumours on social media. He directed the DGP to initiate the process of getting these entities banned in India, according to a government release. In a COVID review meeting chaired by the CM, DGP Gupta said eight FIRs have been registered over the past 10 days against those spreading rumours and circulating false and misleading videos that are preventing people from availing proper medical treatment at health facilities. Gupta said the cases have been registered in Patiala, Ferozepur, Mansa, SAS Nagar, Ludhiana-Rural, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Moga. Circulation of several rumours, including the alleged organ harvesting of coronavirus patients, have posed a new challenge to the Punjab Health department as people in some villages have even prevented medical teams from collecting samples. Criminal cases have also been registered in Ludhiana and Phagwara (Kapurthala) against people holding parties despite the government's prohibitory orders. So far, over 50 people, including the owner of a resort, have been arrested for holding a pool party in Ludhiana, said the DGP. (editor@dailyworld.in)