ludhiana amid the threat of bf7 which is driving the covid surge in china the state health department on saturday asked health department authorities in ludhiana to be prepared to deal with covid cases a health expert also advised residents to follow covid norms in the face of apprehensions about the new strain civil surgeon dr hatinder kaur who attended the meeting with state health department officials on saturday said that while there was no need to panic authorities had asked them to be prepared on the covid front she said that they had been asked to increase testing with a target of 1250 tests per day she also said that samples of people testing positive had to be sent to patiala laboratory for for genome sequencing the civil surgeon said that officials discussed the number of beds in l2 and l3 and about oxygen plants in the district she added that they had been asked to submit demand for medicines and logistics etc we have 2363 beds earmarked for covid patients of which 390 are in government institutions and 2173 in private hospitals of the beds we have 610 l3 beds severe patients in the district of which 30 are in government hospitals as far as oxygen plants in hospitals are concerned we have 7 psa plants in government hospitals including two in the civil hospital one each in mch mother and child hospital vardhman uchc urban community health centre in jawaddi at subdivisional hospitals in raikot and khanna and in esi model hospital in ludhiana said the civil surgeon she added that there are 11 such psas in private hospitals a liquid medical oxygen lmo plant in the civil hospital and eight such plants in private hospitals of ludhiana she informed that they had written to the ground staff to increase vaccination especially the precaution dose health officials said that even though there were no cases the health department would hold mock drills to check preparedness on the ground they said thus would help them ascertain areas which needed to be strengthened health experts said that while there was uncertainty about the behaviour of virus it was good to be prepared in advance former principal dmch dr daljit singh said that the behaviour of the virus could not be predicted and its evolution needed to be observed he also asked authorities to motivate people to get their vaccination dose people should follow basic precautions like wearing masks maintaining social distancing and hand hygiene one should avoid going to crowded places and frequent travelling as it increases the risk of catching infection said dr daljeet singh