Jaipur, Feb 26 (IANS) The swine flu epidemic continued to rage in Rajasthan with six more deaths reported Thursday taking the total death toll over the 250 mark since the start of this year, an official said.
"Six more deaths were reported across the state on Thursday. Total deaths reported till Thursday touched 251 from Jan 1 in the state," a medical and health department official told IANS.
Total positive cases as of Thursday evening were 5,262, out of which 2,039 are from Jaipur alone, the official said.
Jaipur also accounted for the maximum deaths at 51 followed by Ajmer at 29 and Jodhpur at 28.
Meanwhile, state assembly witnessed uproarious scenes Thursday as the opposition parties including the Congress demanded resignation of Medical and Health Minister Rajendra Rathore.
Congress legislators, while raising the issue of swine flu, demanded compensation of Rs.5 lakh each to the families of those who died due to the H1N1 virus.
The opposition also staged a walk out over the issue in the assembly.
Rathore, while making a statement, said that the state government is concerned and is doing all it can to stop the spread of the disease.
"The mortality rate in the state due to swine flu is about 4.7 percent, which is much lower than other states," he said.
The state government has so far distributed 32 lakh Tamiflu tablets across the state, he said.
"Besides allopathy, we have also taken help of homeopathy, unani and ayurvedic system of medicine for controlling the disease. We are also conducting door to door surveys and have distributed Tamiflu tablets to persons showing symptoms like swine flu in nearby 50 houses where a swine flu patient has been found," he said adding that test for swine flu has been made free in six government medical colleges, the desert research centre in Jodhpur and three private labs.
A high level task force on swine flu has also been set up to monitor the situation on daily basis, he added.
Marking a shift from its earlier high-profile annual NRI meets, the Punjab government has decided to opt for a comparatively low-profile events for the diaspora early next year.
It was a bone-chilling day across northern India Sunday, as Jammu and Kashmir's Leh recorded its coldest temperature at minus 17 degrees Celsius and Delhi saw the season's coldest day at 2.6 degrees.
As intense cold swept across Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh, the minimum temperatures at most places were recorded between two and four degrees Celsius, weather officials said Sunday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday hailed Guru Gobind Singh on his birth anniversary Sunday and said he epitomized "ultimate courage" and the spirit of sacrifice.
India Saturday asked Pakistan to hand over the "country's most wanted" and 1993 Mumbai blasts' mastermind Dawood Ibrahim, while the Congress said it was time for the Narendra Modi government to "walk the talk" and sought to know what it had done so far.
