Increase availability of beds for COVID patients, orders Jagan

During the review meeting at the camp office, the chief minister said the state has created new records in conducting Coronavirus tests. He said fifty per cent of beds must be provided to Arogyasri patients in Arogyasri empaneled hospitals and also in non-empaneled hospitals, as notified by the district collector. If required, the hospitals should make provisions for more patients. He directed the officials to empanel the notified hospitals temporarily and allot beds. He said COVID-19 treatment should be provided free of cost in all the hospitals empaneled for COVID-19 treatment under the Arogyasri scheme, and added that the quality of treatment should be high at all hospitals. He said there should be clarity on the number of beds available in the Arogyasri hospitals to get correct data on the patients being allotted these beds.

Jagan told the collectors and the district administration to respond immediately to all calls made to the 104 call centre regarding COVID emergencies. Help should be given to these patients on priority and medical services should be provided completely free of cost to COVID patients, he said. He ordered the setting up of COVID care centres at the hospitals with doctors on the team to ensure complete medical care. He said complete support and cooperation should be provided to people who call the 104 call centre and added that beds should be allocated within three hours. He said to take necessary action if getting a bed is being delayed.

There are currently 108 government hospitals, 349 corporate empaneled hospitals, 47 corporate temporary empaneled hospitals and 94 private category hospitals in the state for COVID-19 treatment. There are 48,439 beds in a total of 598 hospitals, of which 41,517 beds are occupied and 6,922 beds are vacant. In these hospitals, 24,500 patients are being treated under the Arogyasri scheme. The CM said food quality, sanitation, oxygen, medical care and availability of doctors is important in COVID hospitals and instructed the officials to recruit doctors on a temporary basis if necessary.

Rising demand for oxygen

Jagan said there should be no problems in the supply and storage of oxygen and asked officials concerned to make appropriate repairs to ensure uninterrupted supply. He asked the officials to reach out to the Centre for more oxygen and make efforts to find alternative sources. He said that there should be a minimum of 10k liters storage capacity present with hospitals providing 1k liters storage capacity for oxygen. He asked officials to plan for the future need of 500 tonnes of oxygen a day, if necessary.

The officials informed the chief minister that there are currently 44,236 beds in 88 COVID care centers across the state, and 13,356 patients are present in those centres. The state government has recruited 16,981 staff so far this year, including medical professionals, staff nurses, technicians, data entry operators, MNOs, FNOs and sweepers. Around 420 to 500 metric tonnes of oxygen is being used per day in COVID-19 hospitals and it is expected to reach 1,000 metric tonnes by 15 May. But since the state has a storage capacity of only 515 metric tonnes, the officials said that the state government is requesting the Central government for tankers to transport 200 tonnes of oxygen per day from Sriperumbudur and another 200 metric tonnes from Bellary, as well as from Odisha.

In regards to COVID-19 vaccination, two doses of COVID-19 vaccine have so far been administered to 12 lakh people and a single dose to 42 lakh people that totals to 66 lakh vaccines, the officials said.

Deputy chief minister Alla Krishna Srinivas, chief secretary Adityanath Das, DGP Goutam Sawang, COVID command control chairman Dr K.S. Jawahar Reddy, health principal secretary Anil Kumar Singhal, COVID task force committee chairman M.T. Krishna Babu, health commissioner Katamaneni Bhaskar, health secretary M. Ravi Chandra, 104 call centre incharge A. babu, Arogyasri CEO Dr Mallikarjuna and other officials were present.