chandigarh punjab chief minister amarinder singh on thursday directed the dgp to strictly enforce closure of liquor vends in cities and towns by 630pm as per the existing guidelines to check the escalating cases of covid19 in the state as per the guidelines in force till august 31 the liquor shops will remain open till 10pm in rural areas after which the decision will be reviewed and new guidelines issued accordinglypunjabs case tally has crossed 46000mark and has more than 1200 fatalities there are projections of further spike in the coming weeks the orders come amid reports of liquor shops in cities staying open way past the 630pm closure timegiven the spread of the pandemic now in rural areas of the state too amarinder said he will be writing to village sarpanchs to ensure all due precautions and enforcement of safety protocols in response to the feedback that ventilators received from the centre were causing some trouble he ordered a thorough check of these by experienced engineers and doctorsamarinder also inquired into allegations of mismanagement at a faridkot medical college which had been raised by faridkot mla kikki dhillon and asked the health department if the college had sufficient equipment and manpower to deal with the covid crisis chief secretary vini mahajan informed him that an ias officer who is also an mbbs doctor has been deputed to handle covid care management at the faridkot hospitalpointing out that punjab was at the bottom of the list of 10 states with the highest cases mahajan said the fatality rate was a matter of concernhealth adviser dr k k talwar said among the four major cities amritsar was showing a constant number while patiala was stabilising but jalandhar and ludhiana had shown a decline